22 Cups of Coffee
by A Pin Drop
Summary: Roxas works at Old Fashioned Joe and persuades his father to open a new line of popular drinks. Axel, an innocent bystander, is captivated when he sees Roxas putting up a sign that says TRY OUR 22 NEW RECIPES. Head over heels, Axel plans to do just that.
1. PART ONE

[EDIT: I totally thought all this stuff was in here when I published it! I am so sorry!!!]

Summary: Roxas works at a cafe called OLD FASHIONED JOE, which had an assortment of really cheap but really good old-fashioned coffee. As the son of the owner, and a teenager, Roxas proposed that they make another newer separate menu to bring in younger customers. Axel is innocently walking around town, window-shopping, when he spots a cutie putting up a sign that suggested you 'TRY OUR 22 NEW RECIPES!'. Hypnotized by the boy Axel initially goes to the cutie out but loses his nerve and instead makes a pact to try every type of coffee they offer, to prove himself, before asking the boy out.

Rating: T and NOT going up. The bad language in this fic is used by teens of all ages so it totally fits under the T rating.

BETA'd by the marvelous who is awesome and came to my rescue when my original beta unexpectedly dropped out!! Go thank her for the grammatically correctness of the fic!!

NOTE: THIS IS ONLY HALF OF THE STORY!!!! :] I have learned that there is no way for me to write small so the massiveness of the story should be familiar to those of you who've read my other fic's. I am also very sorry for how long it took to write all this, its been FOUR MONTHS!!! I'm gonna try to get the next 20,000 word part out as soon as i can but for now you guys can be happy with this monster of part one.

HAPPY READING!!

* * *

(22) Cups of Coffee

Roxas frowned. It wasn't a bad frown, per se, but then again, now that he thought about it, when were there any good frowns and what occasion would call for them? He pursed his lips for a second, going off and getting distracted by that train of thought before snapping back to reality and deeply frowning again. Now see, Roxas, he wasn't frowning out of being sad, or being upset, or even because he was mad. No, Roxas was frowning with a _purpose_.

And, because he was frowning constantly, he rationalized, someone would take notice and would eventually ask.

"Hey, Rox," Sora called, worry evident in his voice and in the furrow of his brow. "Something wrong?"

"Yes," he said, grateful, and sharply spun to face his brother, fierce determination clear across his face and in his eyes. "Yes, there is."

A range of emotions crossed Sora's face, mostly bewilderment and twitchy nervousness and panic when Roxas caught and held Sora's eyes as if they were wanted felons. A clear glass coffee pot was clutched in his hands, half full with dark liquid that splashed around, labeled simply ITALIAN. Sora was clearly on his way to refill a customer's cup, which brought the blond back to the matter at hand.

"Sora, are you aware of how many old guys are in here?"

Sora, with wide dark blue eyes, looked around the store, mouth forming the numbers as he counted. "Uhh, fifteen?" He looked back to his brother, now mostly curious as to where Roxas was going with this but still a little weirded out about how Roxas's eyes never left his and never wavered in that slightly creepy intensity.

"How many teens do you see?"

Sora looked around the store again. "Uhh, none?"

"Don't you think that's a little strange?" The question shot out of Roxas's mouth even before Sora was done answering because, well, Roxas had been preparing for this conversation in his head for about two hours now.

The brunette bit his lip, glancing around for a foreseeable exit. Roxas was just so WHAM! sometimes. "Uhh, yeah, I guess so."

"Well, I've been thinking about it a lot lately and I think it's because all of our coffees are so, so…blah." He gestured to the pot Sora held. "It's why kids our age never come in here. We can't compete with Starbucks or Java or all of those other coffee big shots around like this: when we only serve the traditional stuff straight from the pot."

"But, Rox," Sora interrupted, laughing slightly and raising an eyebrow at him, "It's an old-fashion coffee shop. That's kind of the point."

"I know that!" Roxas huffed indignantly. "I just think that we could make more profit if we start serving what the majority of the planet likes to drink. Think about it. Everyone wants to have a mocha-vanilla-chocolate-covered-frapp-_whatever_ and we don't have that so we lose that potential customer and that potential five dollars. _Five_ dollars." The blond raised a hand, all digits spread out. "Five dollars for a little measly cup of coffee with some frou-frou fancy stuff sprinkled on top. And they don't even shake their head at the price either! I'm telling you we could make major big buck if we started in on that."

"But we're an _old-fashioned_ coffee shop," Sora insisted lifting up the pot pointedly before shaking his head and walking away, refilling an elderly man's cup while he read the newspaper. The man gave Sora a friendly smile to which Sora gave a huge toothy smile of his own while Roxas rolled his eyes angrily.

"Don't you see?!" he hissed as soon as they were out of hearing range. "We could double our profits! Plus, your friends would come down more often!"

"Well, yeah, I suppose. But," Sora bit his lip, setting the pot down on the coffee to pick up a few magazines that fell over. "It's just we have a pretty good line-up of loyal customers. They would freak if we change everything around…"

"But that's the beauty of it," Roxas enthused. "We don't have to change everything. We could keep our normal menu as it is but have a separate menu of new stuff. We could draw in a whole other crowd of loyal customers! Isn't it worth trying at least?" His blue eyes begged Sora's, pleaded with him to see his side, to confirm that this was a great, awesome, pure _genius_ idea. "Wouldn't it be nice to have a few new faces around here? Spending a ridiculous amount of money on easily prepared beverages!?"

Sora sighed, looking sideways at his brother. Roxas was practically bouncing on his heels as he talked, excitement drowning out his usual bored and sarcastic tone. So Sora thought about it. It _would_ be nice to have more people come in; that was always good for business. And it _would_ be nice to have a change of pace in the line-up of drinks. Buuut, it _was_ an old fashion shop, with old-fashioned coffees. That was the point. However, by selling the new wave popular drinks to people who fell over themselves to buy it, they _would_ profit more. And at the end of the month, profit was what counted; profit was what kept them afloat. But would Dad see it that way? Sora almost laughed at the idea.

He made a humming noise, considered Roxas again. He looked so excited by his idea. Might as well humor him while it lasted. Sora sighed. "Okay. But you're taking it up with Dad, ya hear? In the end it's his decision," he added sternly as Roxas's face brightened considerably, his face was hardly able to contain this rare, wide smile. "If he says no, that means no."

By the end of the month Roxas was proud to cap his pen, all but glowing at the colorful words on the chalkboard sign. He let out a satisfied sigh, smiling softly to himself as he read the sign from arms length and his heart jumped with glee.

TRY OUR 22 NEW RECIPES!

(1) Cup Consumed

Axel was bored. Bored and without anything to quench this boredom. With Demyx off at his lessons and Riku off doing whatever he did these days _that Axel didn't know about because Riku never answered his freakin' phone anymore! _and Mar off doing Larxene, he was without anyone to hang out with. So, he was bored without anything and anyone to do something about his boredom. And from there it was a downward spiral, ending with Axel prowling the city, gazing longingly at the window displays and sucking on the straw of his Big Gulp while his fingers started to go numb.

Normally he hated going to low-town during this time of year, preferring to stay inside, warm and cozy and far away from the biting chill that came to Bastion very year. But it sounded way better than playing Kingdom Wars all day like a socially starved loner so roaming the streets he was, frowning at the snow littering the street and sidewalks he walked on. If it was the pretty, fresh, just-floated-down-to-earth kind of snow, he could tolerate it because, well, it was pretty. But this, the dirty, gray-ish snow, was the _worst_, making low-town look all icky and grimly depressing.

He was having fun, Axel told himself, scoffing at the outrageous price tags of ridiculous looking clothing, a second later trying on said clothing. The guy manning the floor told him he looked _magnificent_! He was having loads of fun, he repeated, chewing on the end of his straw angrily. Loads and loads of fun just walking around town, randomly taking turns on a whim. He was steadily trying to get himself lost if only for the excitement of find his way back.

After he was done ogling a very sexy lingerie store window and snickering under his breath, Axel turned a corner and eyed a pile of snow, specifically a round-ish clump at the top, which he eyed for a second more before giving it a well-aimed kick and sending it tumbling out into the street. Out of pure boredom, he watched, taking a sip from his extra large Big Gulp, as it went unopposed across the road, landing finally at the edge of the sidewalk on the other side. Disinterested, he glanced up, looking for any shops that might hold something to distract from his bored-ness.

Axel nearly spit out his gulp of his Big Gulp.

Across the street, just right above the clump of snow he kicked, was this skinny little kid on his tiptoes, stretching up as far he could go to hang up a large sign that demanded he TRY OUR 22 NEW RECIPES! But he only saw that later, much later when he finally closed his gaping-wide mouth. Axel mostly stood there; looking at the boy like he was a chicken sandwich and the redhead was starving.

And _damn_ he looked good.

As the boy (how old was he? Sixteen? Seventeen? _Please, please, please, please, please) _stepped back to admire his work, hands on his little hips, Axel started fixing himself up. Just a little tuck of the shirt, calculated zipping of his thick jacket, a desperate attempt to flatten his hair into something presentable and he figured he looked as good as it was gonna get. From the shoes the blond boy was wearing Axel figured he had simplistic taste anyway. From across the street Axel saw the boy smile, the little quirk of the lips lighting up his face and he was smitten, _smitten_.

And he just stood there like an idiot while the cutie walked away, turning his back and walking briskly into the cozy looking store. Well, Axel said to himself, it _was_ cold outside and he _was_ only wearing a long sleeved green shirt and it looked pretty thin and _holy god _he was such a stalker, just go talk to the boy already, dammit! The snobbish voice in Axel's head sounded a lot like Riku. It gave him such a good kick in the ass that he lurched forward, crossing the street like there was fire licking at his feet.

A car honked its horn at him angrily, just missing him by a second. Axel was too gone to even flip the car off, chest swelling as he grew nearer and nearer. He saw the Blond Kid through the window, a large coffee container in hand. Blond Kid worked in a coffee shop! How adorable!

Now that he was closer, he saw that the newly put up sign had the names of popular sugary coffees that crazy people shelled out four bucks a pop to drink. Crazy, _crazy_ people. And he was walking into the crazy-people filled shop, cold rosy cheeks cheering at the sudden warmth.

The bell jingled behind him, disrupting the quiet little atmosphere the store had going on, several crazed coffee sippers looking at him curiously. Axel was acutely aware that he was just about the youngest guy there by a long shot. Talk about creeeeeepy. He shuffled in his boots awkwardly, loudly kicking off the snow caked onto them. There was a counter in front of him, stools waiting patiently empty. The redhead made for them, taking in the laid-back setting of the place while taking off his rainbow scarf.

The Blond Kid moved faster than he, patiently standing by the register. At that moment, Axel was acutely aware of his brightly colored scarf and his beat up old shoes and the large hole at the knee his worn jeans. Blond Kid stared at him patiently, blank, expressionless. It looked like he didn't know what a smile was and that made Axel's wide, friendly, handsome smile break off nervously.

God, he had the bluest eyes Axel'd ever _seen_. Like the pictures of tropical waters of someplace perfect and warm all year round and had little bright colored fishes swimming around. His eyes looked like that. And Blond Kid had this little perfect pout-y mouth and button nose. His skin looked so fucking soft, no trace of anything anywhere, and Axel wondered if it would feel as baby smooth under his fingers as--

Blond Kid raised his eyebrows, leaning forward a tad with an expectant face. For a brief moment, Axel's mind went, a_ kiss, a kiss!? Does he want a kiss?! We just met but he wants a kiss, fuckin' yeah!_, before he realized that he was at the _register _in a _store… _Yeah, he should be ordering right now, not staring like an imbecile.

Frantic, he searched the menu, the complicated name of the first thing his eyes landed on shooting out. "Uh, yeah, I'd like a marble mocha macchiato." God, he hoped that came out smooth, did that come out smooth? He didn't feel smooth.

Blond Kid nodded absently, fingers tapping away. Blue, blue, blue, so fucking _blue_ eyes darted to him for a second. "What size?"

"Uhhh. A tall? The… the big one?"

Small, almost inconceivable, but there it was. He smiled a bit, tucking a piece of his wild blond hair behind his ear. Even his ears were perfect. "Large then. We use real sizes here. None of that tall, venti crap. I'll have your order in a minute. Is it for here or to go?"

Go? Go?! But he just got here _and you, my little sweet angel faced minimum wage worker, have yet to be wooed and fall in love with me!_ How could he possibly leave when Blond Kid had the most kissable lips and touchable hair and probably smelled really, really good, too?

God, he was creepy.

"Uhh… f-for here," he stammered, clearing his throat of the little lump and scratching the back of his neck nervously and offering the _please god be my age! _boy what he hoped would look like a friendly and alluring smile, one that said, _hey I know you don't know me but I would like to know you and well, with a few hours you'll want to jump into bed, jump off a mountain, jump into the ocean with me, I am just that interesting and attractive. _

Blond Kid nodded once, punching in a few more buttons and boredly saying, "It'll be ready in two shakes, just… go sit anywhere. I'll find you." He promised this with an idle wave of his hand, motioning to the comfortable looking chairs before turning without another word, his back to the redhead. It was oddly dismissive and seemed out of place entirely, given that Axel was fairly attractive and that in and of itself should have had the boy flirting excessively with him. _Excessively_.

But he wasn't and though Axel lingered for another moment, the blond didn't turn around or pay any attention to him at all. Extremely put off and rather affronted, the tall teen stalked over to a vacated table near the windows to examine himself. He thought he looked fine, more than fine! Then Axel's eyes widened as he examined himself a little more closely, dread coming over him as he looked at his face.

_His tattoos! _

What if Blond Kid didn't like tattoos?! What if, when he spotted them permanently marking his cheekbones, Blond Kid immediately wrote him off, thinking he was some freak or a deadbeat? His mother constantly told him that it would get in the way of having a job but she never told him it would hinder whether or not he got laid! He always figured they would help in that category!

_Well, that's just stupid_, Axel thought, steaming in his chair. He was a _catch_! He was groomed, had money from his last job to buy the ridiculously overpriced coffee the kid made, had a nice smile, a good lookin' mug!, witty, adequate dick length, and a fun, adventurous personality! _Who wouldn't want a piece of me? _What sort of biased, hypocritical, utter dick of a person would write him off without even giving him a chance?! Axel could be the best thing that ever happened to that kid if he could just be given a chance!

As Blondie started walking over to him, colorful ceramic mug that almost matched the red of his hair in hand, Axel was just two steps away from saying this when Blond Kid smiled, dazzling him so much that he promptly forgot everything he wanted to say.

"Here you are," he said as he carefully set down the steaming drink down. "Anything else you need?"

_You_, Axel's mind instantly supplemented, _in my be-- _"No, no," Axel rushed to say before he screwed up and verbalized his thoughts. "I'm, uh, I'm good."

The boy nodded once and walked away.

He might be biased, maybe a pretentious little shit, but his stunning smile, which looked like it was created just for _him_ specifically, said otherwise. He might think Axel was some weirdo screw-up delinquent and couldn't see what a good guy he actually really was but, Axel thought, lifting the red cup up to his lips with a smile, he could _prove_ what a cool guy he was with time. He could prove that he was up to the boy's standards and tastes.

Perhaps he'd start by trying ALL of those 22 new recipes.

Now, wouldn't that be impressive?

Axel grinned a little more as he thought of this, taking a sip of the hot coffee and grimacing. It had a slight chocolate taste, a little sweet, but had an overwhelmingly bitter taste in it too, one Axel could only describe as _coffee_. He didn't even _like_ coffee.

Oh well. Here goes everything.

(2) Cups Consumed

The next day, Axel was back, eagerness making his heart speed up way past what is considered normal just by taking that corner again and seeing the little coffee shop that Axel now knew was called Old Fashioned Joe', after making several failed attempts to get Blondie's undivided attention, he left in shame.

That was not going to happen today.

No, today he had his hair tied back into something more tamed, was wearing his least scuffed up shoes, dark jeans, his cool looking _Kill Me Kiss Me _band t-shirt, and his glasses which he was told made him look smart even though he only needed them for driving at night which was almost never. Or maybe that was just Riku being serious-sarcastic like he sometimes was; face expressionless as he said something in a monotonous tone of voice. He hadn't seen Riku or heard from him in two days now so Axel just had to assume his best friend would approve of his attire.

The snow crunched under his newer Vans as he crossed the street, already looking for a mop of blond hair and blue as tropical water eyes that wasn't in sight at the moment. The sign was still up; the display was in bright cheerful colors that didn't suit the boy at all and yet at the same time represented his personality greatly.

Axel glanced at it on his way in, mentally selecting the next of the lineup; a caramel macchiato. The bell above the door jingled as he opened it, warmth greeting his face and warming his fingers. He immediately started searching the inside, looking though all of the chairs and tables, the little hallway that led to the bathrooms and the counter. All were clear of one very attractive blond.

"Oh! Hi! Can I help you?"

Axel turned absently on instinct, smile already slipping down his disappointed face. He met blue, blue eyes and for a moment his smile widened considerably, eyes crinkling in excitement. However, the blue eyes were attached to a smiling, handsome face and messy _brown_ hair adorned his head instead of blond locks. Not Blond Kid. Definitely not Blond Kid.

His smile completely dropped of his face and in response Not Blond Kid's smile faltered confusedly for a second before returning to its full force. "Uh. Well. What else would you be here for right?" He laughed, blue eyes scrunching up as his smiled widened even more. "Come over to the counter, I'll fix you up. You for here or to go?"

The tall redhead considered this. He was dressed up for a boy, an admittedly cute boy, whom he didn't even the name of and wasn't even here. He felt his neck start to burn in shame and he muttered, feeling quite displeased with himself and his stupid, stupid, puppy love brain; "To go."

Not Blond smiled at him, behind the register and ready to take his order; hand posed above the buttons. "And what would you like sir?"

"Caramel Macchiato, please," Axel answered a little more congenially, unable to be so grim when Not Blond was so cheery and nice. Was Blondie nice like this? When you got to know him? Did his frowns turn to smiles after you crossed the bridge of friendship? As he took his hot beverage and left the store, Axel figured that after a few days of his attendance, Blond Kid would warm up quite nice indeed.

(Later that day)

Axel awoke suddenly, that is, not to imply that he jolted up but just woke in the middle of the night when he usually didn't stir, even during thunderstorms. One moment he was deeply sleeping, the other he was slowly blinking open his eyes, wondering if he was having a dream or wondering if he picked up on some ESP or something, Axel-senses tingling.

Or maybe he woke up because of the tapping noise coming from his window, impatiently knocking away without pause. Axel stared in the general direction of the noise, rising slowly, and blinking. When the knocking continued, Axel scrunched his brows together and rose, grabbing the crowbar and walking over.

Metal bar clutched in his hand, prepared to do some damage if some creep climbed up his fire escape, he pulled the end string to his blinds, the fabric flying upwards.

"Holy mother fucking shit!" Axel jumped, heart skipping, when he saw the pale face smashed up against his window, contorted featured grotesque.

Riku was grinning at him when Axel stopped clenching his heart, saying, muffled through the glass that separated them, "Can I come in?"

Axel sighed, half because he was so glad it wasn't some creep and half because he was relieved to see Riku again. After two days without hearing from him, Axel had started to get worried. He didn't answer, instead he just undid the lock and pushed open the window, stepping back to let Riku crawl through.

It was almost routine. Axel would be sleeping and Riku would come and knock on his window until the message would transfer into his unconscious and he would get up and open it. It didn't happen every night but it happened enough for it to not surprise him anymore.

Normally the redhead wouldn't bother with formalities, going back to bed and feeling the mattress dip as Riku joined him without asking. He never asked, ungrateful twit.

But Axel hadn't seen him for _two days_, and Riku hadn't answered his texts at all which made the teen more worried than someone his age had a right to be. So when Riku got into bed without a word, no explanation, Axel turned and from the close proximity, he could see the purpling mark on his cheek. Axel's green eyes narrowed as his mouth twisted into an angry pucker, severely pissed off now; not at Riku anymore, but at the boy's father. Riku's father was considered an alcoholic to everyone who crossed paths with him but to the man himself he just liked to drink a lot and drink he did. While he was more a verbal abuser than a physical one, fights tended to get hands-on quickly when Riku talked back, unable to keep quiet under the mental hits.

This was how Axel found himself sharing his small bed on most nights and while he understood completely, he couldn't help himself from asking. "What the fuck!? What happened?"

Riku sighed again, an angry exhale of breath from his nose, sounding an awful lot like a bull. He was not looking at Axel; eyes focused somewhere else. "Look, I just," He exhaled again, eyes clenching shut. "I just don't want to talk about it, okay? I see it, I live it, I think it; I just want to have a break, okay?" He sounded very small, even with his muscle and height. "Can we just talk about something else?"

The redhead felt himself deflate, unable to do anything but bend to the will of his best friend. If Riku wanted to talk about something else then they would talk about something else.

"…What've you been doing, lately? I feel like I haven't seen you in forever."

The platinum haired teen chuckled a little, small genuine smile growing on his face as he shrugged nonchalantly. "You know. This and that. Here and there. Meeting people."

Axel started grinning too. "Oh? Who'd you meet?"

Riku licked his lips nervously, finally looking at Axel with happy eyes. "I met this guy. He's…" Riku shook his head a little, smiling growing a bit. "He's so cool. I really, really like him. I think he likes me, too," he whispered, eyes wide like he couldn't believe it, just couldn't believe his luck.

"That's so awesome," Axel whispered back, laying his head down and watching Riku being happy. "What's his name?"

He smiled even larger in his excitement, unable to hold it back, his eyes shining and just happy like they haven't been since the factory Riku's dad worked at started doing pay cuts. "His name is Sora. Oh God, Axel. You would love him, he's just so, so," Riku struggled to find the right word. "He's just great. He's so great."

Axel was so enthralled listening to Riku go on and on about 'Sora', nodding happily because Riku was happy, well into the night that he forgot to tell Riku about the boy _he_ met, falling asleep without it even occurring to him.

(3) Cups Consumed

The next day, Riku was gone, like usual; probably off to his job. Demyx called him at ten, which was before Axel needed to leave to go the coffee shop to look for the kid he really wanted to go out with but didn't know the name of.

When he told Demyx this, with exaggerated hand motions and more whining than was needed for the story, his punk friend look at him like he was an idiot and preceded to let him know why. "You're an idiot," he said, nodding once in apology. "But you're not just an idiot. You're stupid. You don't just hang around looking like a creep waiting for someone to walk up to you." Demyx rolled his eyes and shook his head. "No. You walk up to _him_, fuckin' put on the _moves_, and woo him off his feet. That's how it's done."

"I dunno," Axel mused. "He's kinda…he's a little standoffish. I don't think he would like it much if I just came up and started trying to stick my tongue down his throat."

"_Oh my god," _Demyx said, looking at him again as if he were an idiot. "Those--those aren't the _moves_, man," he shook his head sadly. "No, the _moves_ are this; first, you walk up, not just walk up, but _saunter _over there like you're a fucking tiger on the _prowl_. Second, you smile, nicely," Demyx added as an afterthought, holding up two fingers. "This is very important. Do not come off as a weirdo with an overdone smile, just a friendly one. Thirdly, and this is the most important one, you _flirt_. Flirt, flirt, flirt. Don't lay it on too thick, but not too subtly either; just enough to send out a signal. I mean," Demyx huffed, scratching the shaved parts of his head. "Do you even know if he's _gay_?"

Oh, shit.

The thought hadn't even occurred to him that maybe Blondie didn't like dudes. Axel sputtered, "N-No. I, I--I'll find out!" he announced smugly. "I'll go find out right now. If he's not then your 'moves' won't work."

The two parted, Axel heading down toward the part of low-town where the coffee shop sat. The sign was still up, the bell jingled and the warm blast of air hit him the same as the first two times. Unlike last time, though, Blondie was there, re-filling a customer's cup, biceps flexing a little underneath his shirt. Axel briefly started to wonder what the rest of him looked like, lean and strong or lanky and smooth and how he would look abov---

Axel took a deep breath, blowing it out slowly to gather his courage before he started in toward the boy. Blond Kid looked up, curious upon hearing Axel's determined steps coming toward him. He gave a distracted smile, speaking before Axel'd even opened his mouth. "I'll be with you in a second. Go wait at the counter, please."

All of his courage, all of his confidence, all of his determination just _crumbled_ under Blond Kid's cool gaze, under his impersonal words that flowed up and curled around his ears, teasing, coy.

Axel turned around, neck burning and waited at the counter, too cowed to do more than stutter out his order.

What the hell made him think he could do this? Who the hell did he think he was to think he deserved even a fraction of Blond Boy's brain? Why did he even think he would have a chance; that he could somehow lure this kid, who looked like he was in a boy band lineup in a past life, to him?

He took the seat he sat in last time and laid his head on the cool metal, bemoaning his stupid brain and even stupider heart.

"Rough day?"

The redhead jumped at the sympathetic voice, slowly looking up to find the angelic looking boy who probably liked girls anyway giving him a contemplative frown. He set the red cup down on the table but didn't leave just yet, pausing to hear Axel's reply, blue, blue, so _blue _eyes patient and almost…interested. Axel blinked stupidly.

"UH. I-uh, yeah. Today's--today's not going exactly how I planned."

Blond Kid shrugged. "Today might suck but tomorrow's gonna be better. Just keep at it and eventually it'll all work out."

And it was like angels were singing in Axel's ears, their pretty voices triumphant in the _hallelujah, hallelujah, halleluuuujahhh. _

Unknowingly, Blondie had just given the encouragement that Axel needed to continue in his quest to somehow make the boy fall madly in love with him.

(4) Cups Consumed

"So…," Axel said slowly, drawing out the vowel while he glanced, hopefully in a way that was distracted and politely interested and not creepy-interested, over the artsy magazine that would give him just the right amount of cool to the blond person delivering his coffee boredly. "Shouldn't you be at school?"

All the schools of the area were closed for break.

But the question was the only one he could come up with, the only one he could ask without looking like a total weirdo and getting his ass kicked out of the shop and never knowing if they were remotely close to the same age. Axel was in his senior year and anything lower than 16 was not going to happen no matter how much he wanted to.

Blond Kid glanced up slowly, considering him for a second before huffing out a short laugh and shaking his head. "Nah, Twilight let out for break awhile ago."

_Twilight Academy!? _

Mentally, Axel gasped.

Twilight Academy was the rival school of the area, the private school to Axel's public, and they both hated each other with a passion. That Roxas went to private school while Axel went to public furthered his theory that they were star-crossed lovers. Key word: _lovers_.

He didn't let this even grace his features for a second, only nodding interestedly, and raising his eyebrows like he was impressed, taking a small sip of his vanilla latte. "Oh, wow. That's the private, right?" He knew it was the freaking private school, (who didn't know it was the private school!?), but seeing Blondie nod and look like he was paying attention to him gave Axel the chills. "What year are you?"

"I'm a junior," he answered and while Axel just about had a seizure in his chair, Blond Kid was glancing away, another customer beckoning him over. He sighed. "I gotta go."

"Yeah, yeah, it's no--" Blondie wasn't even listening to him anymore, walking away without another word. "--It's nothing," Axel muttered into his drink, frowning angrily like a child.

But really, he was too excited to keep feeling dejected. Blondie was sixteen or _seventeen_! Totally within his age range and thusly Axel mentally checked a box for their compatibility, almost giggling over the idea.

He went home, not even a little put out that Blond Kid hardly glanced at him the rest of the time he was there, smiling and happy with the world at large.

(5) Cups Consumed

Axel just couldn't sleep.

After he hung out with Riku and Larxene today, and for once the girl didn't have Marluxia sucking on her neck or vice versa, he sneaked off to the coffee shop, saying he was going home early. Pssht. Who went home on a Saturday at _nine_?

He was there at a different time than usual and was hoping that Blondie would still be there. By now Axel had a pretty good grasp on who staffed the shop. Some days it was a brunette girl with choppy hair and cool blue and green eyes and this cheery blond with braids in her hair who hummed to herself constantly and just about skipped everywhere she went. Sometimes Not Blond was there with Brunette Girl and sometimes he was there with Blond Girl but most of the time he was there with Blondie. Blondie was there most of the time, a nice break from the huge smiles and bouncy personalities. From observing him quietly over the past few days, Axel liked to believe he was quiet, shy, and naturally introverted. He probably liked holding hands better than making out in public and liked sex slow and with soft kisses rather than biting and pulling hair. Axel was prepared to make sacrifices.

Anyway, so, after he 'went home', Axel walked the few blocks over to the coffee shop, wrapping his scarf tightly around him as the snow fell. The trees had white lights on them, standing out sharply in the night. Others were out and about and the teen found himself seeing couples everywhere, holding hands, kissing, laughing. He found himself being jealous over people whom he'd never met before and entered the coffee shop a little more hopeful than usual.

Not Blond spotted him instantly, grinning ear to ear. "Hi again! Welcome back. What can I get for you tonight?"

The redhead scoped out the rest of the shop for a short, bored blond but didn't find him. Oh well; maybe tomorrow. He sighed as he considered the menu, mentally ticking off all of the drinks he'd already had. The barista's pocket jingled loudly, drawing both of their attentions. Not Blond smiled apologetically but took his phone out anyway, flipping it open and smiling widely, laughing softly.

Waiting like a gentlemen, Axel ordered when he calmed down a little bit, smiling politely. "I'd like a Cappuccino, please, small."

The brunette's, whose hair looked even more frazzled than normal, smile didn't waver in its intensity as he pounded the right number in. "For here?"

"To go."

He nodded to himself and then looked around the shop while he told Axel his total, accepting a five distractedly as he searched. Not Blond clicked his tongue in thought then smiled widely, bringing up a hand to wave frantically. "Hey! Roxas come over here and fill this order. I'm going on break."

"You _just_ went on break!" came the irritated reply, voice making Axel freeze in his spot, hand still outstretched to investigate some mints.

The brunette smiled a goofy smile, shrugging his shoulders and already walking away. "So?"

Axel turned slowly, eyes wide. He caught the last few seconds of Blondie giving Not Blond a cold look, lips pursed in annoyance. He saw Blondie roll his pretty blue eyes and huff but walk over to the counter anyway, moving hair out of his eyes. It looked shinier than normal but maybe it was just because of the light but it also made him look like he was fucking _glowing_. Like he was a god, or a, an angel or some shit. God, Axel wanted to kiss him.

Blondie squinted at the machine, reading the order and his lips curled slightly. "Cappuccino? Excellent choice. I'll have it done in a second."

Excellent choice!?

Axel glowed. Blondie thought he had excellent tastes. Maybe this whole thing actually was working and Blondie was finally taking notice of him, grungy clothing and tattooed face and all. He stood around, the dumbest smile on his face, until his order was ready. When Blondie handed over his cup, their hands touched a little bit, just a small little brush of skin on skin but it made Axel's hands tingle.

Blondie even waved a little bit as he left, smiling the tiniest fraction and that too made Axel tingle all over.

Lying in his bed, staring up at his ceiling, Axel was far too buzzed to even think about sleep, but maybe that was the caffeine in his system. But it wasn't just the caffeine, it was how Blondie's hair looked, how blue his eyes were today, how their fingers touched, the first skin on skin contact, how he smiled and waved goodbye when Axel left.

Tossing and turning all night, the stupidest smile on his face, Axel was far too sick with excitement and anxiety to sleep.

Because 'Blondie'?

His real name was 'Roxas'.

Roxas.

It sounded perfect to him, rang softly in his ears the entire night, both gentle and tough at the same time. Kinda just… rolls off the tongue too. And when Axel finally did collapse into unconsciousness, it was with that name in his head and with a shudder down his spine whenever he thought it.

That same night, Roxas as well couldn't sleep, though it was for a very different reason from Axel's. While Axel was tossing and turning due to Roxas himself, the teen certainly wasn't thinking of him. In fact, apart from making his orders when the man came in the shop, Roxas didn't think about him at all.

He had more important and troubling things on his mind.

"Why can't you just talk to me!?"

"I'm not talking because you're _screaming_ at me!"

Roxas turned over, frowning and shutting his eyes tighter, like if he did that then everything would just fade into the background and go away. That's all he wanted, was for it to just _go away_, for them to stop screaming and yelling and fighting all the damn time and just be happy again. There were more muffled noises, hushed but quick, voices lowered in volume but not intensity. He could envision the angry tears forming in his mother's face and the indignant look on his dad's face.

He turned over again, facing his wall, eyes open since he knew he wasn't going to get to sleep anytime soon. But while the nights were bad, the mornings were worse. Instead of his parents getting out all of their frustration on each other, they were silent, not even looking at each other. Sitting between them, eating his eggs at the table, Roxas figured he could probably cut the tension in half with a dull spoon.

In the morning they wouldn't even acknowledge the fact that they had a fight, like it never happened in the first place, like they hadn't kept him up all night, worrying that this'll be the night where his family will be officially torn in two. How they were able to do this completely eluded him and how Sora was able to laugh, smile, and joke while this all was going on completely baffled him.

Perhaps he was the only one that gave a shit at all; maybe he missed the lesson on what to do if your parents kept fighting, maybe he was sick on the day they told you not to let on that you knew your parents' marriage was falling apart.

"What exactly have I done, Shera!?"

"You work all the time, you're never home, and when I do see you all you do is complain about the bills!"

"Because we have them! Sorry I'm trying to make sure we still have a house over our head and that our kids can have food."

"You know that's not what I mean, Cid!"

Roxas exhaled a slow breath, brows coming together in an angry furrow as he sat up, shoulders tense and a headache starting form. Money, bills, mortgage, school fees, they seemed like such little unimportant things until they managed to swallow everything you are whole, until everything you've ever cared about can be secured if you just made a few extra hundred dollars at the end of the month, if you just sacrificed a few more hours of your time.

"That's what you always mean!" his father shouted as Roxas slipped on his thick hoodie, zipping it up over his nightshirt. "When are you ever not screeching to me about those things!?" Roxas pulled on some jeans that were lying on the floor, hopping only the slightest bit when tugging them on so his parents wouldn't know he was up. "You pretend that you don't care, but when it's time to pay bills, every little thing that I _didn't_ do suddenly comes up like it's my fault we have bills!"

Roxas slipped his shoes on, grabbed his thick white beanie and moved to his window that squeaked a little bit as it opened. He didn't even contemplate swinging his legs over it anymore. The seven-foot drop wasn't anything he wasn't used to; in fact, the feeling of the ground suddenly under him was almost comforting, much more than his actual home was recently.

From there, snow crunching beneath his feet, he just wandered. Aimlessly walking around cleared his head better than anything else. He knew Sora wouldn't talk about it with him, and Hayner, his best friend, didn't understand that anything was wrong at all.

He sighed deeply and then breathed in the harsh but refreshing winter air and continued walking and walking and walking….

(6) Cups Consumed

"Axel," his mother sighed, tired eyes blinking at him owlishly. "What the hell are you doing?"

The redhead was awake, which was extremely miraculous considering it was eight in the morning and it was in fact a Saturday. However, it was not so much that he was awake as it was that he was _dressed_ and didn't look zombie-awake but honestly _awake_ awake; and going somewhere apparently.

"Oh, hey, Mom," he said distractedly, looking around. "Have you seen my shoes?"

"They're behind the sofa," she pointed, stifling a yawn as she leaned on the wall and watched him pull on his sneakers. It seemed every time she saw him, he grew an inch, which might be accurate considering how much she worked and how little she actually saw him. Today he looked… neat, like he had brushed his hair a little more or something. "Where're you going?"

"Out," he answered shortly, pulling his laces tight.

"Out where?"

"Umm, to this little place I found. It has a nice ambient atmosphere… Good for reading," he mumbled which was when she noticed the paperback next to him. Some book she didn't know by some author she hadn't heard of. She barked out a laugh, surprise lighting up her features.

"Reading? You?"

"Yeah, me," he darkly replied, shooting her a small glare. "It's… um, it's homework."

It was not homework. It wasn't even his book. It was something Riku had left in his room one time and promptly forgot about, but it looked like maybe something Roxas, and holy god how good it felt to think his name, might read. He looked like the type of guy that would appreciate books and would appreciate people who also appreciated books.

He stood up, brushing off nonexistent lint from his nicer than normal jeans and wrapped his scarf around his neck. "I'm gonna go, now," he said, voice slightly muffled under the thick cloth. "I'll be home later, ok?"

"Okay, sweetie," she eventually smiled, looking at her baby boy, her only baby. He looked so much like his father right now. "When do you think you'll be home?"

Axel hummed as he considered her question, taking his book and making for the door. "Probably most likely before ten-ish."

"And you'll call me if you need anything?"

"Yeah."

"…Okay. Have fun."

His green eyes crinkled at her, and she guessed he was smiling, as he turned the knob of their apartment door. "I will, Mom. See ya."

She only watched him for another moment or two, until she couldn't see his vibrant hair so much like his father's anymore, disappearing as he descended the stairs. As he left, her tiredness came back, the headache from working two jobs to make rent and get groceries throbbing in her temples. She sighed and went to bed, keeping her phone near her for just in case.

As usual, the bell above the door jingled as he entered, accompanied by loud stomping noises as Axel rid himself of the snow clinging to his shoes. The chilling breeze wandered inside and those closer to the door shivered and cast wary glances toward it, as if reconsidering their seating arrangement.

Blond Girl perked up, glowing smile on her face, the beads on her braids clinking together as she waved at him energetically. "Hey! I remember you! Whaddya want? For here or to go?"

Axel glanced around the shop as he walked toward her, looking for the other blond that worked here. He was surprised to see that several young people, two girls and one moody looking boy in the corner, were sipping on whipped cream covered coffee, a vast difference from the usual customers. He did not see _Roxas_. "I'll, uh, I'll have the gingersnap. Large. For here."

"Oki doke," she beamed, lightly punching in the correct buttons. "That'll be five fifty, please."

He handed her the money and went to go sit at his usual table by the window, taking out his book and reading it over for the first time, knowing by now that his choice in coffee would be delivered. Like a pizza or something.

_The Guide to Hearts_, the front page read, _By Dr. Ansem Wise. _Axel frowned deeply, flipping it over and speeding through the summary before glancing upwards, exasperated. A psychology book. Of course it would be a psychology book. Of course Riku read psychology books, the one kind of book that made Axel want to fall asleep. It wasn't that he didn't appreciate what people had been finding out about the human condition but reading about it, reading the dry language and complicated notes, drove him crazy. He would rather read one of those lusty paperback romances, the ones that used terms like 'quivering thighs' and 'his rod of love'. Axel frowned at the title page, considering it more when he saw Roxas out of the corner of his eye.

He flipped to the first page.

_Roxas_ looked a little more flustered than usual, the redhead noticed while he was kind've reading. He looked about to scream, all forced smiles and distracted looks, more than usual sighs at random intervals, more eye rolling, and more frustration in the downward curl of his lips. When Blond Girl waved him over, her smile bright as ever, Roxas's shoulders slumped a little, relaxing as he rubbed his temples. He nodded a few times as she yapped, shrugging once, sighing as she handed him a large red mug.

Axel was very absorbed in the way that the working boy's jeans clung to his hips and how a little sliver of skin was visible between his long-sleeved dark blue shirt and the belt of his jeans, and thankfully, too, because if he hadn't been, then the older teen probably wouldn't have noticed when they started moving. Toward the window area. Toward where Axel sat. Towards _him_.

Shocked and totally not ready yet, Axel choked on his own spit a little, strange gurgling noise coming from his throat and nearly jumping out of his skin as he stared at the text of the book, trying to look contemplative and smart. He dared not look up.

There was a small clack of the mug being set down even though it was placed as gently as possible. "Here you go," the blond sighed, flicking a piece of golden hair from his eyes. "Enjoy."

Swallowing the lump in his throat caused by the close proximity, Axel opened his mouth to say something, anything, hopefully witty and smart. He _could've_ said something introspective that would've stuck with the boy for weeks. He _would've_ said something that would make him rethink how the blond thought about life. He _should've_ said something that would make Roxas want to jump him right in the middle of the store, it was just that awesome.

In addition, he should've, would've, could've, if Roxas's attention hadn't been suddenly stolen away from him. All the old man with graying hair had to do was briefly raise a hand and make a small waving motion to get his undivided attention, leaving Axel's side to go refill his cup.

Disappointment was so thick around him that someone could've cut it with a knife.

Axel took a disheartened sip of his drink and watched Roxas refill and make coffee orders for the next twenty minutes, absently reading a few sentences of the psychology book here and there when Roxas disappeared from his line of sight.

Eventually, two chapters in, Axel looked up to see Roxas taking off his black apron, yawning, and placing it on a table near the straws, sugar packets, and other stuff needed to make your coffee experience perfect. He ruffled his hair a little, frowning and staring off into space before turning around and grabbing something from behind the counter.

Axel squinted, forgetting that he was supposed to be sly, and saw it was a book. A book. Mentally, Axel cheered because he totally guessed right, totally just knew that Roxas liked books. He was a book person. Fuckin' _yes_. And then he mentally freaked out, not because he thought that now Roxas was totally out of his intelligence range, but because Axel recognized the cover of the book and his jaw dropped because Roxas had just become super cool in his book.

Anyone who read _Dean _fucking_ Koontz _was awesome.

The junior took a seat in one of the table's tall chairs and cracked it open to the middle, immediately staring intently at it and Axel had never been more turned on in his life.

Well, yeah, that wasn't true, he _had, _but no one the redhead had ever liked had even known of Dean Koontz so the fact that Roxas did and apparently liked it, blew him away and made him want the kid even more. Not only in his bed, but to talk to because anyone who read Dean Koontz had interesting things to say, wouldn't fill conversations with air-headed thoughts about vampires or whether Spiderman or Batman would be able to win in a fight.

Axel was itching, literally itching, to go over and start talking about how Koontz was a literary genius and about how his writing just flowed and made sense even though sometimes it was utterly ridiculous and how much he loved _One Door Away From Heaven _and would probably fall in love with Roxas if the boy even mentioned _Icebound. _

Deep breaths, deeps breaths, Axel reminded himself, getting far too worked up to pass as sane, too giddy with excitement to go over there yet. He took a few more breaths, trying to calm his wildly beating heart, smiling like an idiot, before Axel decided that he needed a packet of sugar. As he got up the squeaking of his chair against the floor seemed impossibly loud, like the rest of the shop quieted down to watch him probably make a fool out of himself, neck starting to heat up as he neared the counter.

Roxas was too absorbed in the book to see Axel pause at the table to take a few much needed breaths because when he passed the blond Axel somehow forgot to breathe. Another shaky, excited breath and Axel turned, his face carefully bored until he was two steps away from Roxas's table.

He made a small noise of surprise.

"Oh, hey, I know this must be really weird, but, uh, is that Dean Koontz?" Axel babbled, stomach twisting in pure nervousness. He felt like he was going to throw up. _Please, God, no. _

Clear blue eyes like pretty ocean waters looked up at him curiously and then back down to his book like he had to check that yes, it was Dean Koontz. "Um, yeah," the teen said, small smile working its way up on his lips. "Yeah, it is."

"That's awesome," he smiled, hoping it wasn't creepy, but nice at least, he was shooting for nice. "I'm a big fan of Koontz's work."

"Me, too!"

Oh, Jesus, mother fuck, yes, yes, _yes. _If it hadn't been before, Axel's heart was positively fluttering now. "What's your favorite?"

"Well, _One Door Away From Heaven_ was brilliant, but it's hard because all of them are really good and really different from each other."

_Oh my God, _Axel thought, _I think I have found my soul mate. _Heart pumping wildly, head screaming thank you thank you thank you thank you!, he opened his mouth to say something else but apparently the heavens had something against him because Blond Girl let out a long, drawn out groan.

"Roooxaas!" she called from behind the counter, standing in front of a complicated looking machine. "I think I broke it!"

The blond boy sighed. "I gotta go," he said with a sheepish duck of his head, shrugging his shoulders and looking in her direction as if that explained everything. He placed his bookmark back inside and stood, grabbing his apron and tying it up as he shook his head at her, smiling a little. "What happened this time?" and was answered with a girly stomp of a foot and babbling explanation as to why the machine had something against her even though all she did was look at it and it exploded.

Roxas's hips sashayed a little when he walked, Axel noticed, and then he mentally called himself a creep.

Later, in the seventh chapter of _The Guide to Hearts, _in which Dr. Wise theorized why some people developed obsessive traits and why others did not, Roxas took off his apron again but this time he hung it up. Around this time, Brunette Girl walked in, a light skip in her step and a gentle but glowing smile on her face. Blond Girl waved merrily, grinning ear to ear and even Roxas smiled at her. The three huddled together. Actually, the two girls more converged into Roxas's space, the boy looking a little nervous in between the two squealing and jumping girls. Apparently, there was something very interesting about Brunette Girl's hand but they were too far away for the teen to see what it was.

Something about that last thought struck Axel as very odd and he turned away, feeling very much like a weirdo.

Eventually Axel did see though, from the corner of his peripheral vision of course, Roxas leave the two women and disappear behind a door for a few short moments, eventually coming out with a thick coat and a white beanie on his head. _He's leaving, _Axel realized, feeling his heart drop in disappointment. He lifted up his cup to his lips to hide the gradual frown that was forming, only to realize in surprise that his cup was cool and empty.

Axel frowned at it, trying to remember the last sip.

"You want a refill?"

The voice didn't make him jump out of his skin but to Axel's embarrassment and to Roxas's slight amusement (Axel could tell by the little crinkle that developed near his eyes) he did jump. And _maybe_ he emitted a noise that sounded only the tiniest littlest bit like a squeak.

Roxas let out a short breathy laugh and pointed to his cup, eyebrows raised questioningly. "Want me to get you another?"

For a second, Axel just looked at him. Blinked. Then stared again.

When Roxas fidgeted nervously and averted his gaze for a second, most probably thinking something along the lines of 'oh gosh, what a freaking weirdo', Axel pretended to observe his appearance.

"…But aren't you leaving? It's cool but I can just go up there and get another one. It no big--"

Roxas rolled his eyes and took his cup and Axel noticed he had on checkered gloves that clung to his slender hands like…a glove. "I work here. It's no big deal; it only takes a second or two. I'll be right back."

Heart pounding at the second friendly exchange they had (the first and second in the same day! Oh my gosh!), Axel waited patiently for his return, sure that everyone one else in the shop was on bated breath as well.

Because Roxas talked to him of his own violation_, his own violation_.

Oh, fuck yeah.

When Axel finally went home, the sun had already been set for hours. The coffee store had been closed for a while. After Roxas left, there was really no reason to stay and he quickly became bored with his book and his refill, even though every sip of it felt like magic. He had no car and it was snowing outside, but the fact that he soon lost feeling in the tips of his ears and the part of his face that was not covered by his rainbow scarf didn't bother him. He was too far gone to care if it took him thirty minutes of walking to get back to the complex.

He had talked to Roxas; had a perfectly normal, delightful thirty-second conversation. They had things in common. Roxas was cautiously friendly but there was a, a, a _smile_ behind his eyes when they talked. He wasn't a complete douche bag, he was willing to talk with him, and even if Axel had tattoos on his face, he hadn't seemed to care and had only stared at them for a second. Then Roxas walked up to _him_, and talked to _him_, _wanted_ to talk to _him_, of his own accord.

Amazing: simply amazing.

His mom was at work, as she always was these days, so Axel didn't think twice about the bang the door made as he swung it open and didn't wipe the smug smile off his face. Shoes came off in haphazard movements, one going behind the couch and one remaining by the kitchen counter. Scarf and jacket were discarded on the table between their couch and small TV.

Axel sighed, smile feeling warm on his cold face, feeling the fuzzy affect in his chest, like he couldn't breathe right. He opened his door.

"Now just where have you been, young man?" Riku snapped in a very feminine Mom-voice from his position of lying on his stomach on Axel's bed, reading a magazine and sporting a hickey on his neck. "Do you know what time it is?"

"It's not even nine!"

"Well," Riku huffed, flicking a piece of his bleached platinum blond hair out of his face. "I was still worried about my baby Axel, all alone in the city, down in low-town even!, doing Lord knows what."

The redhead stared at him, scoffed and pulled a face. "How the hell did you even get in here?"

"Key under the mat."

"Wha-what?" Axel shook his head and ran a hand through his hair, deciding to just drop it. "Whaddya want?"

Riku sighed dramatically, rolling over onto his back, the bed squeaking under him, before staring at him upside-down with a blank face. "Do I really need a reason to visit my bestest friend in the whole wide world? Why does everyone think everybody needs something? Why can't I just come by to come by? It's not like I came over to eat all your macaroni and cheese."

"_Did_ you eat my macaroni and cheese?"

"Well, yeah," Riku flipped the page and tilted his head back to see Axel better. "Did you honestly expect me not to?"

"You're such a weirdo, Riku. I don't know why I hang out with you."

"Because I'm vivaciously good looking and a babe magnet, thus making you better looking by acquaintance."

The taller teen snorted and shook his head. "Oh, yeah, totally; I guess that giant hickey on your neck is just proof of your magnetic powers."

Riku's hand flew up to his neck and he ditched the magazine to get up and look in the mirror, wincing as he poked the reddened spot marring his skin. "Oooh. That's a big one." A snort of agreement came from his friend, pulling a loose black shirt over his head. Not that Riku was watching or anything; there was an unspoken agreement that their relationship was purely platonic. Axel was too tall for him anyway. "So you know what I've been doing but where the hell have you been? I've been sitting over there for at least five hours waiting for you to entertain me."

Axel paused, hands gripping the fabric of his jeans on his hips, getting ready to pull them off. A slow smile worked its way on his face as he changed to a pair of shorts, gently softening him until he was all warm mush. "I, uh, I kinda met this kid…"

And Riku turned away from the mirror and looked at his friend, pleasantly surprised and waiting to hear more. Axel never just 'met a kid'.

Axel didn't really look at him, shyly smiling at the floor while he talked. "I, uh, I was walked around low-town a couple days ago and I just saw him. I almost got hit by a car trying to get to him. He works at this coffee shop down by Fifth and Prince and he's really, really," Axel laughed breathily, shooting Riku a smiley look, "cute. Oh, my God. He has these blue, blue, so fuckin' _blue_ eyes, ya know? God. And, and, he reads Dean Koontz and he goes to Twilight Academy and he's blond and kinda small and wears Adidas and---"

"Whoa."

The babbling teen came to an abrupt stop, words stopping in his throat at the look on Riku's face: a cross of confusion, suspicion, and _oh, hell no_. "W-what?"

Riku opened his mouth, closed it, squinted at Axel and then opened his mouth again. "Are you… Does he wear a white beanie most the time? And has a funky hairdo?"

And it was like a light went off in Axel's face, smile growing into a stupid grin and excitement blooming in his eyes, sheer delight in his features. "Yeah! Do you know him?"

"Oh, God." Riku's blue-green eyes widened considerably: shell-shocked. He took a deep breath and exhaled it, walking over to the window and taking another deep breath and exhaling it, sounding like he was twice his age. "Of course I know him! He's _Roxas_. Roxas. Jesus flip, Axel. Roxas? Really? Roxas Highwind?"

"What's the big deal?" Axel asked, gesturing widely and looking at Riku as if he had three heads and sat in the space Riku just vacated. He mentally cheered over finding out his last name, though, sighing over it. Roxas _Highwind_.

His best friend scoffed and turned to look at him, shaking his head, long hair flapping around. "He's Sora's _kid brother_, that's what." When Axel's face failed to show that he understood the situation Riku elaborated; "Sora? That guy I met? He works with Roxas, too? Kinda short? Blue eyes, brown hair--"

"_That's _Sora?" Axel pulled a face, shaking his head. "They're brothers? They look nothing alike!"

"That's what I keep saying," Riku laughed, the problem over Axel's impossible infatuation with the coldest kid he knew disappearing for a second. "But everyone always thinks they're twins or something. And they're nothing alike either! Complete polar opposites."

Axel nodded. "Complete opposites. Sora pretty happy-go-lucky, but Roxas, he's deep."

Riku barked out a laughed, grimacing over the thought of Sora's younger brother. "Roxas is not deep. He's a moody little twat, that's what he is."

"How would you even know!?" Axel stood up; fists clenched the second the words came out of Riku's mouth. Instantly, his blood was boiling, body all tight like he was going to get into a fight; over Roxas and his totally not moody twat-ness.

"How would you?" Riku shot back, Axel's wound up body language doing nothing to deter him.

"'Cause! 'Cause--I-I--" The redhead started and stopped, face scrunching up in frustration and slight embarrassment. He shuffled his feet and looked away from Riku's expectant face. "'Cause I practically fuckin' stalk him every single goddamn day at that coffee place. Jesus Christ, I am so pathetic." He sat back down on his bed, putting his face in his hands. "What am I gonna dooooo," he whined, voice only a little muffled but mostly clear to Riku's ears. "I'm so totally losing my shit over this kid, Riku. And he doesn't even know I exist."

Riku hummed, bouncing slightly on his heels while he deliberated on what to do. While the brunette didn't have a problem with Axel (hell, he didn't even know who Axel was), Sora would get in a fight with anyone if he knew that person was trying to get into his brother's pants. And Sora would _kill_ him if he knew about it to begin with. But Axel made a deep groaning noise, pushing his hair back with his hands and looking so damn helpless that Riku couldn't not help him out. Sora might bite off his dick the next time they engaged in fellatio but what were friends for, right?

"Okay, look, Axel," Riku started slowly and softly, whispering as if the walls in Axel's small room were going to tell on him. "I'm gonna help you out. Here's what we're gonna do…."

(7) Cups Consumed

The bell jingled as Axel walked in, confidant but with a nervous twist in his stomach. Roxas was wiping down a table, the muscle visible under his black sleeve flexing. The sight of it made his stomach clench pleasantly. Roxas glanced over to him, lips looking pinker than usual and slightly parted. Axel watched, transfixed, as the blond unconsciously ran his tongue over his bottom lip.

"Um, we're about to close, so…." Blue eyes looked pointedly behind him, toward the door, not quite telling him to get out but suggesting it silently.

But Axel smiled. "That's okay. I just need a quick one to go anyway. Can you fix me up?"

He let out a breathy laugh, shaking his head and giving the table one more swipe. "Sure. Sure, I'll fix you up."

Since the usual crowd was gone, nothing but the sounds of gurgling and churning from the coffee maker when Roxas set out to make Axel's seventh order filled the store. It was eerily silent with just him and the blond that had him going crazy bending over backwards. Axel idly tapped the polished stone of the counter, watching as Roxas made his drink with fascination; not at how nicely those faded jeans fit around his thighs but at how fluid and natural he was at the machine as if he'd been doing it his entire life. …Okay, maybe a bit of both.

Roxas's apparel of a fancy printed tee and fitted jeans made him smile an unnoticeable bit more, trying hard to keep down what would surely be a creepy grin. He settled for fiddling around with the mints, holding one in his hand, contemplating, before moving it in the center to buy as well. You never know, he might get lucky tonight.

The shorter teen capped his drink, slipped on a cup sleeve and set it down at the counter for him, pressing the buttons and knobs to ring up his order. Axel paid and left, making sure to give him a memorable grin as he wished the blond a goodnight. While he would have loved to spend another minute, another hour there, he had a potentially amazing night ahead of him.

Two hours later found Axel arriving at someone's house. He finagled and pleaded for the use of his mother's car. He didn't remember whose house was hosting the post-Christmas party exactly but he did remember the important details. Party: 11 o'clock. Beer: yes. Good music: probably not his definition of the word. Roxas: hell, yes.

The fact that Roxas was going to be there was the sole reason he was going. Some of his friends would also be there, like Riku, who put his balls on the line to deliver this holy grail of information. Apparently, Not Blond was the only person who mattered when it came to who is and who isn't getting admittance into Roxas's pants. Axel generally fit into the category of 'isn't'.

But a best friend didn't go halfway and then leave his pal hanging above a pool of pissed off sharks. Riku was going to handle the Sora Situation. That, hopefully, would leave the Roxas Situation to Axel and, hopefully, if he followed The Plan, the Roxas Situation would no longer be a Situation.

Step one; first, he had to find Riku. The entire house, to which the redhead still had no idea who it belonged to, was full of teens, most holding red cups in their hands unless they were dancing. Marluxia was sucking face with Larxene on one of the couches but he took a second long break to acknowledge the redhead. Demyx was hounding the stereo controller, trying to get some music he liked on. The DJ, a skinny kid with dyed purple hair and thick-rimmed glasses, wasn't having any of it and continued to play techno. Axel finally spotted Riku's signature hair in the very back, facing away from him and gesturing wildly to whoever he was talking to. Bingo.

Step two: "Oh, _hey,_ Riku!" he called out, casually walking over as if he just stumbled upon him. "What's up?" They exchanged knucks and grinning at nothing in particular. Riku then stopped suddenly and smiled, turning to introduce him to the brunet at his side who was curiously quiet.

"Axel, this is Sora. I've told you about Sora, right?" Riku was good at lying. Axel knew practically everything about Sora, from his funny innocence to the freckle he had on his lower back.

Nevertheless, Axel shrugged, accepting the hand Sora offered. "Bit here, a bit there. Nice to put the name to a face," he grinned, laying on thick his nicety in hopes that the brunet would like him and eventually accept him as his future brother-in-law.

Sora, meanwhile, had a peculiar look on his face. He blinked and then smiled wide. "Wait. Whoa. You're Axel?! I see you every freakin' day!!"

Now Axel took his turn acting: he frowned, taken aback and shot a noticeably weirded-out look at Riku. "Excuse me?"

"I work at Old Fashioned Joe!" Sora said excitably. "You come in, like, everyday and order something. Man! I never would have guessed you were the Axel Riku talked about. Small world, huh?"

"Very."

Step two was now very much accomplished.

Sora finally let go of his hand, laughing. "This is too weird!" A sudden look flashed over his face and immediately Axel thought of those light bulbs that appeared over peoples' heads in cartoons. "My brother's here, too! You gotta meet him! He's the blond guy that usually works with me? I'll go get him, wait here!" And just like that, Riku's boyfriend vanished into the throng of people, waving merrily as he was sucked in.

Riku looked over at Axel and Axel looked over at him. "This is working out…almost perfectly," Axel said, astonished. Step three complete. Riku rolled his eyes and punched him in the shoulder.

"Are you saying you doubted me? Douche!" Riku laughed, flicking a piece of his light hair behind him. "How did the trip to Joe's work out? You guys suck face?"

"Oh, yeah, totally; being all alone in a dark store was a big turn on," he lied. "He pounced within seconds of me ordering a dark cherry mocha, which tasted like shit by the way." His best friend chuckled, rolling his eyes, knowing that Sora would beat him black and blue if he knew that they were talking about his little baby brother like this. Speaking of which…

"Sora's coming back, fix your hair," he advised, sipping on his soda. Sora didn't like drinking, so Riku wasn't drinking beer. Axel jerked, glaring at him while running a hand through his crazy hair as though he actually had a chance of making it stick down into something more normal.

Sora, the taller and more outgoing of the two brothers, led the way, talking animatedly and tugging on his brother's hand. Roxas looked like he was dragged from a comfortable dark corner of the house, which was probably the case. He didn't look too happy about this.

"Hi, guys!" The brunet chirped. He pointed to Roxas, who was glowering at the floor. "Axel; this is Roxas. Roxas; this is Axel. You know him, right?" After shooting a severely scathing look at his brother, Roxas finally glanced over at the beaming redhead. Blue eyes blinked and his mouth quirked a little bit but Axel saw it (he saw it, damn it!), and knew that at some level the blond was happy, or amused, to see him.

The tallest of the four held out his hand eagerly and was somewhat shocked when Roxas's handshake was gentle, so totally unlike his brother's fierce, energetic one. "Hey," the words were smooth and boyish, Roxas looking up at him, perplexed. "I just saw you, didn't I?"

Oh, angels could not sing words that were more beautiful. "Yeah," he laughed. "This is so weird. Like, _Twilight Zone _weird. Well, whatever. I'm Axel. I'm Riku's friend."

"Oh, cool."

"Yeah."

Roxas nodded absently, glancing over to his brother a few times. But Sora was busy making faces at Riku. "So…um. It was great meeting you, Axel. But I need to go find my friends, they're probably wondering where I went."

Oh no! "What," Axel smiled dashingly, leaning a little forward. "They can't survive a few more moments of your absence? Are you, like, their spokesperson or something?"

Roxas laughed (laughed!), and Axel's heart fluttered. "No, not exactly. Sora just dragged me away--"

"Kicking and screaming?"

"--yes! Kicking and screaming," he laughed and the redhead mentally took a picture of the way his nose scrunched. "So I think they might be starting to get worried."

"Well, of course," Axel nodded solemnly. "Friends usually get worried when other friends are dragged away kicking and screaming into large crowds of people. I understand."

The younger teen nodded a few times, awkwardly looking around and took a step back. "So, um, yeah." Another step back. "I'll see you later, I guess." Another step. So close and yet weeks away. Axel's heart sighed, and he forced a grin onto his face.

"Most likely. I seem to be frequenting the store you work in so I'll definitely see you around," Axel smirked and gave a cocky two-finger salute. "See ya."

Step four; finished and over with but definitely the worst so far.

With Roxas gone to his real friends and Riku steadily becoming Sora oriented, the only thing left to do was wait and hope Riku didn't forget his part of the plan. Axel left the couple to find a friend or two to talk shit with, hopefully in an opportune spot that would put Roxas in his field of vision if he felt bold enough to be that close to him. Seeing the blond laugh with his entourage of pretty friends, he didn't and went to go sit on the roof.

You knew a party was over when multitudes of people started to stumble out of the house, usually held up by a sober friend, into cars and slowly drive away. His palms were sweaty and suddenly it was too hot. His phone beeped a while ago and the message made his heart skip and start beating nervously.

_W/ Sora. He's all yours. _

From the rooftop, he climbed down and after walking through the interior of the house, Axel saw only those who were too far gone to even stand and those who were leaving, poking his head into room after room shyly and feeling like such a creeping loser but not enough to stop from gulping and taking a deep breath when he ventured onto the front porch area and into the chill air. Roxas was impatiently jiggling his legs near the stairs, hopping from one to another in a strange, unintentional dance. One hand was held near his ear holding what was most likely a cell phone, trying to reach, most likely, his brother, who was indisposed at the moment.

Sora was his ride home tonight.

Behind the redhead, Demyx sauntered out of the house, arm around the scene looking kid he had been arguing over music with. "Hey, Axel!" he called, waving his arm wildly. "There's another Christmas party over at Xig's. We're gonna head down there. You up for it?"

Think fast. "Nah," he said, taking a few experimental steps forward while he talked to his friend, purposely not watching where he was going. "I'm gonna head home. See ya on the flipsi--ahh!" Body collided with body, the closest contact they'd made to date. Axel couldn't tell what startled the shorter boy more, the colliding or the shout he gave. Either way, Roxas dropped his phone into the snow and he let out several foul curses as he picked it up. "Oh, shit. Hey, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to, like,--" Roxas stood up; phone retrieved and looked him right in the face. Axel paused to let it seem like he was processing Roxas's face and then let a smile erupt on his face. "Hey! You're Sora's little brother, right? We met earlier?"

The blond sighed, squinting at him a bit before nodding. He flipped his phone open again and put it up to his ear, and jiggled his leg again impatiently. Axel waved goodbye to Demyx and stayed where he was. Roxas groaned and stomped his foot. "Jesus Christ, Sora! Fucking answer your phone! How the hell am I supposed to get home now!? Jesus Christ!" Having left the message, Roxas hung up only to redial again and press the phone back to his ear.

Axel took his chance. "Umm, sorry, but I saw your brother leave with Riku awhile ago…" The younger teen turned and looked at him with shock, mouth hanging open and eyes blinking. "Yeah... They're probably making out. Aren't your friends here?" Axel saw them leave. "Can't they give you a ride?"

Again, Roxas sighed and shut his phone dejectedly. "No… I told them to leave without me because Sora was supposed to _bring me home_," he grumbled, severely pissed off and pouting. So cute. He kicked the snow.

The redhead scratched the back of his head and mimed difficult thought while Roxas glared at the snow, flipping open and shutting his phone multiple times. "Well," he drawled until the blond looked at him. "I could give you a ride?"

And Roxas just lit up.

So that was how Axel ended up driving the quiet boy uptown to his well off home way after midnight, making jokes here and there, some of which Roxas actually found funny and others that he just politely laughed at. That was how he ended up going home with a humongous smile on his face. That was how he legitimately shoved himself into Roxas's good graces.

(8) Cups of Coffee

The day of the eighth cup of coffee Roxas smiled at Axel when he walked in and held up one finger. He was wiping down a table, scrubbing hard to get the coffee rings off while Axel scoured the menu for his next conquest.

"I'm surprised you're up this early," Roxas said in way of greeting.

"I'm surprised you're working this early," Axel laughed. "Isn't there a law against child labor? I'll have an Americano, by the way. For here." Roxas punched in the buttons and shook his head.

"I'm seventeen. Besides, my Dad owns this place. He'd make me work sun up to sun down if he could." He laughed and his eyes crinkled cutely. He turned around to get started on the drink but kept talking, "He thinks it'll instill some work ethic but I think he just wants to save a few bucks."

"Oh, I see how it is. And here I thought you worked because you liked the customers' smiling, bright faces. I'm disappointed now, Roxas. They should take down your employee of the month picture." Axel nodded wisely, smiling, excited. No sane human being should be this happy from sarcastic banter.

"Yeah right." Roxas chuckled. "I'll never be employee of the month. I don't smile every second of the day."

"Yeah, I've noticed that you're all doom and gloom compared to the others."

"I am not doom and gloom."

"You are _so_ doom and gloom."

"I am not. Just because I'm not as extroverted as Sora or Rikku doesn't mean I'm doom and gloom. I'm cheery," he stated and handed Axel his bright red, hot cup of coffee. At Axel's sly smirk, he frowned and furrowed his eyebrows together in a pout. "In my own way."

The tall boy laughed and was about to say something smart when a feminine grunt distracted him. The girl had short bobbed red hair and looked pointedly at him, and under her impatient glare, he backed away. Roxas gave him a short smile before paying attention to the girl. It seemed like he knew her and it also seemed that she was putting the moves on him, from all of her giggling and talking. Sitting in his usual spot by the window, Axel could see that Roxas was smiling and laughing sometimes, too. He took a gulp of the scalding coffee with a distraught grimace and sighed.

_I must be a masochist_.

(9) Cups Consumed

Roxas sat with him at his break time, something that made him get all these butterflies in his stomach and sweat a little. Roxas didn't seem to notice and answered Axel's small talk questions.

"Well, I dunno. I like my school, I guess. I don't want to blow it up but I also wouldn't want to spend any extra years there, you know? I'm a junior so it's pretty stupid to hate it since I'm gonna be gone in a year. I dunno, do you like college?"

Startled, Axel choked on his sip of Café Mocha. Roxas stifled a laugh as the older boy coughed. "What? I--I'm eighteen. I go to Bastion High. How old do you think I am?!"

Roxas reddened and averted his eyes. "Um, I dunno. I thought Riku was older so I figured you were older, too. And you come in at random times so I thought you went to college or something."

"Uhh, no," Axel slowly shook his head, smiling because Roxas thought about him. "Riku's 1a senior like I am. We're on winter break until the fourth."

"Oh."

"Yeah…"

"So," Roxas started and then stopped himself, absently licking his lower lip. "So. How do you know Riku anyway?"

Riku and he had met in first grade after Axel beat him up for stealing his favorite green racecar during playtime. They became fast friends. Roxas had infectious laughter, prompting Axel to starting laughing nervously, smiling like a big dork. He fidgeted with his coffee cup, wanting so much to wipe away a strand of hair that fell down into Roxas's slightly watery blue eyes. Roxas didn't notice and thankfully brushed it away himself when his laughter died out. He was smiling lightly.

"Riku…seems like a good guy," he said after he made sure his brother wasn't in the area. "I don't see him much so I can't say for sure."

"Riku's a great guy," Axel nodded, comfortable with this turn of conversations. He knew Riku better than anyone else. Probably. Now that Sora was in the picture, he had genuine competition for Riku-knowing. "Sora couldn't be with a nicer guy."

The teen paused, thinking for a second. "Oh, yeah?"

"Yeah, definitely! I'm not just sayin' this to make him look good because, well, for one I don't think he cares what you think about him and, in the end, it doesn't really matter to me what you think about him, either. I've known that kid for years, _years_," he stressed, "And not once have I ever seen him be anything but the nicest boyfriend. He a closet romantic," Axel stage whispered, leaning in conspiratorially. It's true. When Riku fell, he fell hard. The only bad thing about that was… "If your brother breaks his heart, I'll kick his ass. I will, too; I know where you live." 119 East Owl Street: Axel had memorized it because he really was _that_ creepy.

Unperturbed by the threat, Roxas chuckled and checked over his shoulder. His brother was talking to one of their customers at the counter. "That's okay. I don't think he will. I'm not gonna tell you this because I don't think he cares if you like him and because I don't care if you like him but Sora's head over heels for him," he grinned. "But that's just between you and me."

Axel nodded dumbly, distracted by what else was between them. Only several inches of space separated them, it would be so easy to just lean in and connect their lips together. Would that freak him out? That would probably freak him out. Roxas's lips were nearly red from the hot coffee he was drinking and looked very soft this close up, though. His eyes were so blue.

Axel gulped and tried to cover it up with a shaky laugh. "Oh, yeah? Huh, interesting. I'll try not to let it accidentally slip out in a conversation."

"Try your hardest. This is top secret information."

Later, when he was let off for the day, Roxas sat at one of the bridges he liked uptown with his friend Hayner. It had ornate embellishments on it, fleur-de-lis and spirals all contorting around an old clock lodged in the center of it. The bridge wasn't busy since it only connected two suburban subdivisions together but the road underneath usually was and the speed limit here was set at fifty. They liked to eat sea salt ice cream in the summer and drink hot cocoa in the winter and watch the cars blur by, hitting each other on the shoulder when they spotted a certain color car. It was freezing out and they usually lost feeling in their noses but it was always worth it. Sometimes Roxas just didn't want to be alone.

But today they paused in their male bonding as Roxas's parents came up as a topic of discussion.

"I mean," Hayner said as he swallowed a gulp of steaming liquid. "I'm sure it's just a thing. You know? Like, doesn't every relationship have its ups and downs? Give it a few weeks and I bet they'll smooth things out." Hayner, whose parents were high school sweethearts, couldn't even fathom a family he knew well completely splitting apart at the seams. Roxas at least thought he would try, instead of giving advice that Roxas himself had been trying to follow for the past few months now.

Roxas sighed, deep and lasting, breath white in the cold air. He looked up at the clouded sky that promised nothing but another fall of snow soon. "Yeah… I guess you're right," he tried to laugh and thought he did a good job of it. "Just have to wait it out, I guess…"

He then turned to Hayner and punched him on the shoulder, declaring green car.

(10) Cups Consumed

The tenth cup of coffee Axel consumed was not until very late that day when Roxas wasn't even working. This didn't bother him too much, considering he spent a good amount of the day with the boy. No, not getting a cup of a coffee from him wasn't even on his list of bothersome things that day.

It happened around one or two o'clock. Being on winter break didn't mean he was just lounging around, doing nothing. Well, he was, but he couldn't get away with that for long. He had a paper to draft up, about how book settings affected decisions and the character of those in a book he sort of remembered reading. After his hand stopped feeling sore, he put on his shoes, wrapped his scarf around his neck and went for a walk to low-town to visit his favorite little barista.

But, unfortunately, Roxas was on his way out when Axel arrived, white beanie sitting resolutely on his head. He almost hit the redhead with the door. "Oh! Axel! Shi-- I'm sorry, man," he apologized, shaking his head a little. "I didn't even see you. I thought you weren't coming in today."

"Yeah, well, just because I'm on break doesn't mean I'm actually on break. School haunts me no matter where I go… Are you going on break?"

"I'm done for the day actually," Roxas confessed. "But I'm not going far. Sora has the car so I basically have to wait until Yuna comes to relieve him. I'm gonna go wait at the comic book store…. Do… Do you want to come?"

And Axel just about pissed his pants. He played it off, though, looking into the store window thoughtfully for a second before giving Roxas a smile. "Well, I don't know what I'm gonna do without that morning shot of addictive caffeine." The small smile on Roxas's face dropped a little. "Buuut, I might be able to deal with it."

Roxas laughed and raised one his eyebrows sarcastically. "Can you? I bet those caffeine withdrawals are pretty brutal."

"Nothing your rosy personality can't erase, Blondie," the redhead smirked, feeling very smooth even with his stomach full of butterflies. Roxas had asked him to hang out. _Hang out. _This was…this was…revolutionary, almost a full seven steps ahead of The Plan and _so quickly. _He, he was floored, just _floored_ at how well Riku's ingenious idea was working out. Who knew offering a _ride_ could've cemented their friendship so easily. Wow. Maybe it was also because he was wearing his lucky _Up We Go _band shirt.

While Axel was busy being awed inside his own head, Roxas was talking and walking, Axel just following behind dumbly. "…was my idea. It just made sense considering everyone else had it, you know? It would have been a waste not to follow the trend, economically speaking. Sora thought we were selling out but my Dad thought we could try it out to try and bring some more revenue in. And it worked!" He declared proudly as he turned the corner. "A bunch of new people have been coming in and _coming back. _Like you," he smiled. "You like the menu, right? I mean, it's what brought you in?"

_What brought me in were fantasies about kissing you, which ironically is the same thing that keeps me coming. _"Yeah," he lied. "It caught my eye. It's real good, too." Another lie. But it was just a little lie, a little white one that wouldn't do any harm. In five years, they'll look back on it and laugh. Besides, Roxas just about started to glow when he said it before grinning and pointing energetically.

"That's it! This is The Comic Shop. Just about my favorite place in low-town so you should feel lucky. Not just anyone gets to come here," he joked, laughing. "It's only for cool people."

"Then how'd you find out about it?" Axel teased. Roxas shot his a look between a glare and a grin.

"For your information I brought here by Nami. She's just about the coolest chick I've ever met. She wants to get into comic books, like, as a job. She's so good but she'll never admit it. She's so cool."

"Nami? Who's that, your little girlfriend?" He said it leeringly, but his heart was sinking.

The short teen barked out a laugh, rolling his eyes as he opened up the door to the retro looking shop. If it wasn't for the large letters adorning the area above the door, Axel wouldn't have ever guessed it was a comic shop. It looked kinda… house-y. And there were no books on display at the windows. "As if."

Heart rising from Roxas's dismissal of a girlfriend, Axel looked around, somewhat impressed. Like where Roxas worked, there were many chairs and tables around, which were probably never all filled at the same time. Nevertheless, the main difference was the rows and rows of books. Roxas walked right to them, obviously knowing what he wanted. Axel meandered around, looking for something familiar. He wasn't too into comics but did have mad respect for the man in blue.

Plopping down nervously on a plump chair, he fiddled with the book, looking around for Roxas and wondering just what he was supposed to do now. Did he try to fill the silence with conversation or just sit and read in comfortable silence? Was this normal? Should he really be here? Since he accepted, what exactly is this? Are they on a date of some sort? Axel furrowed his brow, frowning at a picture of a young Clark Kent. That didn't sound quite right to him.

It… it felt like it should be harder. Or…was it really this easy? In the chair in front of him, Roxas plopped down, folding his legs in and started to read the first on his small pile of books. Axel smiled when he saw who was on the cover; Spiderman. Huh. Go figure. Was being with Roxas going to be this easy? It couldn't be, could it?

If there was such a thing as a comfortable stupor, Axel was well on his way toward it. Two comics read all the way through and halfway through a third one, a full two hours later, he had blocked out everything but Superman and his last few days on Earth. The only thing he kept notice of was Roxas, of course, even setting aside a few good moments here and there to look at him. His mouth was curled in a pleased smile that Axel couldn't get enough of.

A shrill beeping from his back pocket brought him out of his comic daze, even making Roxas look up at him questioningly. The screen said it was from Riku, a less than sign and a three coming before and after his name which Axel didn't remember putting in. A moment later, Roxas's own pocket began to jingle, the blond blinking as he extracted it and brought it up to his ear. "Sora?"

Axel flipped his phone open, disappointed that Roxas was leaving and trying to cover up his frown by reading Riku's message. His fake frown became a real one.

_Tell Sora where you live so he can pick me up. You need more Mac N' Cheese. _

He blinked twice at the message, even exiting out to see if Riku sent a follow up message to explain. He didn't. Across from him, Roxas was making noises of agreement, nodding his head here and there. "Okay," he said. "I'll tell him. Bye." He shut his phone with an audible snap and started to gather his comics in a neat pile. "Sora's gonna give you a ride home. He has to pick up Riku, too."

And Axel blinked again, completely taken back at Roxas's sureness of speech, like bringing Axel home and picking Riku up wasn't weird at all. "What if I don't want to go home?" Because he really didn't. Axel considered briefly trying to convince Roxas to let him go to _his_ house, knowing that being in the same room behind closed doors increased the chance of something romantic happening. It also increased the chance of him fucking up and all the progress he made worthless because Roxas didn't want to even look at him again.

Roxas shrugged his shoulders. "I dunno. Sora doesn't know the way there, though, so…"

Roxas had a way of trailing off in mid-sentence, always looking like he expected everyone to read his mind and finish his sentence or just agree with him since he didn't exactly give any chance to argue.

So Axel shrugged and got up.

Sora drove a nice silver car that looked new, far newer than any car Axel had ever gotten to drive anyway. Roxas got in the front while Axel was left, all by his lonesome, in the back. When Sora rotated in his seat to grin and ask him for directions to his house, Axel realized that were going to his home; his shit apartment in the sort of bad part of town. Oh fuck. Reddening a little, he gave the first few directions, suddenly embarrassed as hell and hating his best friend.

What was Riku's problem?! This was not the sort of thing a friend did for another friend! This was the opposite of what friends did for friends! This is what people did when they wanted to totally screw over someone's chances at being with someone better than they were! Augh! _Dick_.

Riku was going to get it when Axel got home.

While Sora drove and engaged Roxas with some gossip about one of his friends or something, Axel sat and seethed. _Great, _he thought, _just great_. Now Roxas was going to know that he was basically trash and wasn't worth his time and would start ignoring him or acting like Axel was some form of plague. Tomorrow, Roxas would just give him that _look_, the kind where Roxas _knew_ he was better. He sunk a bit lower in the nice black leather seats as the buildings started to get dingier, knowing they were getting closer to home.

For their part, neither Sora or Roxas seemed shocked or weirded out now that they realized where they were and how different it was from their little neighborhood up-town. Axel figured it was because they didn't want to hurt his feelings. Sora hummed a little and looked at him in his rear-view mirror. "Sooo…," he said, much like his brother but very different as he left his sentences open and closed them as well. "Why's Riku at your place if you're not even there? Am I gonna have to come down here a lot?" He laughed but Axel fidgeted.

"Probably. I think Riku has problems with his brain. He seems to think that my bed's his bed. It also extends to food and clothes so lock up your stuff," he advised, rolling his eyes and envisioning beating his friend up. "I think it's contagious, 'cause all my friends have started to do it, too. Apparently my place is where to go if you need to crash," he tried to sound annoyed but wasn't. He would rather Demyx or Larxene end up sleeping on his floor than anyone else's.

Both of the brothers made interested humming noises and for once Axel realized that they did resemble each other. Sitting there, looking contemplative, they both had a small frown bringing down their lips that meant they were thinking. It was kinda cute.

They reached his complex. "Well," he announced loudly, really wanting to get out there as fast as he could with as much pride as possible. "This is me. I'll send Riku out real quick," he smiled, all the while thinking of punching said boy in the face.

He didn't dare look at Roxas.

Four flights of stomping up the stairs and frisking himself for his keys brought Axel to his apartment door. The lock stuck and needed to be jiggled angrily to let Axel shove it open. When it finally surrendered and Axel threw open the door, Riku was sitting at the couch reading his psychology book. His head popped up like a meerkat at the sound of Axel coming in.

"Honey," he cried in a falsetto, grin breaking out on his face. "You're home!" Axel glared at him, mouth contorting and Riku kept smiling, expression not dropping in the slightest. When Axel's continual glaring did nothing to change Riku's fake cheer, he stomped his foot.

"You're a dick!"

Riku's smile fell to a blank look, replying seriously, "No. You're a dick." He then got up, totally ignoring Axel's indignant tries at making words and went to look out the window. "Sora here? Cooooool. We're gonna go see a movie today."

"I don't give a _shit_ what you're gonna do! Why did you do this?! Were you _trying_ to seriously ruin my chances with Roxas? What's your problem?!"

Riku rolled his eyes and put on his shoes, moving to Axel's bedroom while he talked, the redhead following huffily behind him. "Please. If seeing where you live would make Roxas reconsider liking you, if he's considering liking you at all, he's the one with the problem. It's all part of the plan, Ax," he said, patting his friend on the shoulder after he put on his shoes. "And if this does ruin your chances with him then I'm still not sorry and he's a dick and you shouldn't like him anyway and I'll put Nair in his shampoo. Okay?"

The tall teen nodded glumly, shoulders slumping as he sighed. Even though he knew Riku was right, so right it rather pissed him off, he still glared and pouted while Riku put on his coat and started to climb out his window. Before he started to descend the rusting fire escape, Riku looked back and grinned at his friend.

"Besides," he said. "If Roxas is considering liking you, _he knows where you live now_. Now, isn't that just _fantastic_?" The slightly stunned and pinkish look on Axel's face was answer enough for him and the light haired boy laughed all the way to Sora's car.

(11) Cups Consumed

Given all the mile marks of the day before, the redhead entered Old Fashioned Joe with more enthusiasm and nervousness than ever before. If Riku was right, which he usually was, then today was either make it or break it day. If Roxas was weird then that was it. He…he would have to call it quits and give up hope. He didn't like the thought of that, in fact he was pretty sure that he would rather suffer from not knowing than knowing Roxas was never going to look at him the way he wanted those blue eyes to look at him.

He put on his favorite _Jupiter_ shirt, the one he wore at possibly the best concert of his life, the very last show the little known post-hardcore band ever preformed. He laced up his old and beaten-up hi-tops and took in a deep breath, thinking positive thoughts all the way there, not even feeling the chill as snow fell all around him. This was either an end or a beginning and the ringing the bell above the door made was more ominous that a bell should ever sound.

Sora looked up to greet him and burst into the usual grin of his. He must have had a nice night last night while Axel was awake into the wee hours of the morn tossing and turning. Axel took off his coat and scarf while Sora talked. "Hey, Axel! Roxas is getting more cream from the back. Are you staying long? What d'you want? I'll ring you up."

"I'll, uh, I'll have the plain espresso this time. Is that strong?"

"Depends on your definition of strong," Sora offered vaguely. "I'll get you a one ounce shot and if you hate it, Rox'll drink it. He likes that kind of stuff."

"Really? Doesn't seem the type." Axel figured he would have a little sweet tooth, favoring stuff like a cinnamon dolce latte, which Axel picked up at the end of the day yesterday. It was almost sickeningly sweet. The nickname 'Rox' was also insanely cute and Axel mentally filed it away to use in conversation later.

Sora shook his head while the complicated machine started to grumble and gurgle. "Nuh uh! Roxas doesn't really like sweet things, I mean he likes that blue ice cream shit but he just likes his coffee strong, you know? I got all of the sweet tooth gene, I guess." The brunet shrugged, a 'what can you do' gesture as the dark liquid spilled forth from the machine, collected in a suspiciously small red cup. "But, uh, I know it's really none of my business. But I just want to say thanks."

Taken back at the strange comment, Axel blinked hard as he accepted the hot mug and plate. "Excuse me?"

Whereas before Sora was loud and cheery with his speech, completely uncaring if he was heard by everyone, he now looked bashful and spoke in a lowered voice. "I mean, my brother. I know you have better things to do than hang out with a little kid but it's really nice of you to spend time with him. He really likes you, you know?"

"He does!?" Thankfully, Sora had his back turned to him so he couldn't see the way Axel's eyes bugged out at that information or the way he burst into a giant goofy smile. Axel even felt his cheeks start to get hot and wondered how the hell he managed to have such good luck.

"Yeah," the teen said as he stood on his tiptoes to reach a bag of coffee beans. "I think it's good he sees you as a friend. I mean, it can't hurt, right? I think it'll be good for him to have a friend he hasn't known since grade school." Sora turned around, bag in hand, and gave him a thankful smile. "So thanks, it means a lot."

_I think it's good he sees you as a friend. _

_Sees you as a friend._

_Friend. _

"Oh." The redhead nodded numbly. "Yeah, man. I mean, yeah, it's cool. I don't mind." He paid and went to sit at his usual table. Taking a sip of the espresso, he found it to be utterly disgusting. Axel stayed put for a moment, seeing but not really seeing before he exhaled a long breath and let his shoulders slump. He felt…weird, like his chest was heavier than it should be. He stood up and put his coat back on. As he tied the multicolored scarf around his neck, in came Roxas with several bottles of what must have been the sought after cream.

The blond spotted him and smiled before stopping and letting the expression gradually fall. "Are you leaving?" he asked, even though it was apparent he was.

Axel plastered on a fake smile and lied. "Yeah, yeah, I just remembered that I have a few pages of home work and school starts up again soon so I have to work on that."

"Oh," Roxas said, placing the bottles of cream in their places on the wall.

"Yeah," Axel said again, nodding nervously as if he halfway expected Roxas to call him out on his lie. He started for the door, wanting to be anywhere but there at that moment. But he felt guilty as he opened the door. "So, um, I'll see you later, Roxas."

"See ya."

Axel left, leaving his barely drunken espresso and the boy who was probably everything he ever wanted and probably straight and his probable friend, which had to be the kiss of death, behind. He didn't stay long enough to see Roxas watch him leave, keeping his eyes on the bright burst of red hair all the way until he couldn't anymore. The blond unconsciously nodded to himself several times and sighed before he got back to work, wishing Axel was still there to cheer him up a little, because, when he woke up today, his parents didn't even look at each other.

Usually sleeping peacefully at this time of night, Axel started awake, blinking blearily and confusedly around. The glowing red numbers on his alarm clock read twelve twenty-three and when his not-quite-awake mind processed this, the obvious reaction was to roll over and tug the covers around him a little more. The bed was warm and as welcoming as an embrace against the chill of cold air in his little room. Axel sighed, relaxing when an almost silent pattering sounded from his window area.

Tired green eyes opened as Axel sighed again, thinking; _Riku_.

Clad in only boxers and a thin nightshirt, the cold winter air raised goose bumps on his skin as he rose to the window, forgetting the crowbar he kept near him at night because tough times made tough parts of the neighborhood more, well, tough. The tapping at the window became fewer and farther in-between before dropping off entirely by the time Axel drew up the blinds, scratching idly at his stomach.

Startled wide blue eyes and soft blond hair, white beanie keeping down the usual style Axel had come to know over the past two weeks, peered back at him.

Roxas blinked, hand held up, forgotten in the air. He looked cold, snow lingering on his hat and shoulders. When he realized that he was staring, he looked down, shoving his hands into depths of his thick jacket and shuffled awkwardly. During all this Axel just stared, wondering if he was still sleeping, until Roxas glanced up at him and gave a small smile.

The window came up with a few creaks and some more force than usual, but it came up, and Axel leaned out, winter air ghosting around his skin and making him shiver. "It's pretty cold out," he said softly. It seemed near silent. No cars rumbling pasts, no loud drunks on their way home or to another bar, no ambulances roaring past like every other night. "What are you doing here, Roxas?"

There was no reason for Roxas, little blue eyed Roxas who looked like he couldn't throw a stone, to be out in this neighborhood at this time of night. When the teen averted his eyes and pursed his lips, Axel knew that he knew there was no sound reason for him to be there, either.

However, it appeared that that didn't even cross his mind, Roxas looking back up at him with eyes that dared to turn him away and also begged him not to. "You said if anyone ever needs a place to crash, yours is usually the place to go, didn't you?"

Axel blinked, once, twice, and then moved back as Roxas came in.

The redhead suddenly became a little nervous and a lot embarrassed as Roxas looked around his small, dingy room, probably half the size of his if one were being generous. But Roxas didn't say anything. Instead, he dropped to his knees and started to take off his shoes. "Where am I going to sleep?"

"Um, I, um. Well, I don't really have anywhere else for you so…. Usually, my friends just crash on my bed 'cause they don't care about my personal space," Axel laughed nervously, hand rubbing the back of his neck. "I won't grope you in your sleep, promise."

Roxas shrugged off his coat and let out a soft laugh. "Well as long as you _promise_. It's okay. Thanks."

There was an awkward shuffle near the bed, mostly on Axel's part because holy shit, Roxas was going to be in his bed and they haven't even kissed yet. Nothing was going to happen, sure, but just the thought of it was enough to make him have chills, even under his blanket.

Roxas's back was turned to him, quiet, but Axel's brain was so busy keeping in control his hormones that it failed to stop his mouth. "So…um, what happened? I mean, do you, do you want to talk about it? Or not, I mean, it's none of my business anyway, so…yeah," he finished lamely, wondering why he couldn't be like a normal person for once and cursing himself for even opening his big dumb mouth.

Beside him, Roxas shuffled, the springs of the mattress creaking, but the boy himself was quiet_. Great, _Axel thought, _now Roxas thinks I'm nosy and weird and won't ever want anything to do with me again. _But eventually he spoke, humorous tilt to his voice; "My parents were fighting. I think they're getting a divorce. It's too cold outside so I just came here." Axel watched as his shoulders shrugged. "It's nothing, really."

* * *

OK, so once again so sorry it took this long to come out, second half is going to be out as soon as possible but honestly it's gonna take awhile. Things I wnated to point out are: The band t-shirts axel has are not real bands. _Kill Me Kiss Me_ is actually a korean manwha that I loved, Up We Go is influenced by the movie Up in the Air and UP. Jupiter is from my other story Summer Boy, I couldn't help but put it in. I love Dean Koontz. I don't actually know alot about coffee. So if you work in a coffee shop and want to call me out on BS, please go right ahead, I encourage you. I love Superman, he's my favorite hero. Axel reads All Star Superman and Superman: Secret Origin. I think beanies are cute on boys.

I actually really dislike winter. It really weird writing a winter fic when its almost summer, ahahah. This was actually supposed to be out in JANUARY. This entire HALF is as long as I wanted the whole thing to be!! Ahh! Haahaa, ummmm, I don't remember what else I wanted to say, so if you are interested about somethign and want to know how I came up with it or if its from somethign in real life, go ahead and ask! Have a GREAT DAY EVERYBODY!! HEARTS AND KISSES AND THE BEST WISHES!!

PLEASE REVIEW!! I love reading reviews whether they are rants, criticism, babble, or general thoughts about the fic. So go on, be a rebel, click that button and click it hard! :]


	2. PART TWO

YAAAAAY second part is up and beta'd and here for you to read! It picks up right where part one left off so if you're a little fuzzy on what happened last time, you might want to skim it over so everything is kosher.

Beta's by Life' again. She is awesome for cleaning my mess up like a pro. :]

Happy reading!

* * *

(12) Cups of Coffee

However, it wasn't 'nothing' and Axel couldn't just ignore something that so obviously bothered him even if he didn't have the spine at the moment to say anything. The next morning Roxas was gone. The only trace of the blond was the faint scent of coffee still lingering in the sheets. He wasn't so concerned about this, since he was well accustomed to Riku's coming and going.

He was concerned, however, about the state of Roxas's family problems and last night. Roxas's words just kept circling around in his head, again and again and again. _My parents were fighting. They're getting a divorce. _That wasn't so unusual these days; in fact, it was more normal than marriages actually making it. Axel's own parents had divorced when he was little.

_It's too cold outside so I just came here. _What the hell does that mean? Of course it's cold outside. Why was he outside anyway? Axel sighed and rolled over as he considered why. Though his own parents divorced over twelve years ago, he vaguely remembered the yelling and the general atmosphere that surrounded his then home. Back then, he had wanted to be anywhere but there… Perhaps that's how Roxas felt as well and why he was outside. It was a very long walk from Roxas's residential neighborhood to Axel's complex.

_It's nothing. Really. _It was anything but nothing. To walk all that way in the snow, to climb up his fire escape, to come to him, whom Roxas hardly knew, is definitely not nothing. It's everything. It changes everything.

When Axel first saw him across the street that very first day, there was no way he would have ever thought of Roxas climbing up his fire escape. Ok, yeah, maybe he did, but that was for something less personal and more erotic in nature. He only ever hoped, hoped and fantasized and then hoped some more. For Roxas to actually be there, to actually seem to trust him and, if Sora was right, think of him as a friend and come to him with problems, this was real, this was actually happening.

He couldn't half-ass stuff now, he couldn't hope and wait and sit around for Roxas to go on his break. This was real, this was happening. He had to do shit because Roxas walking around in the middle of the night to escape his parents' arguments. That wasn't healthy teenage behavior, something was wrong, and it was obvious no one else was paying attention to it if Roxas went to _him_ to escape it.

But at least Axel was the one person who actually had the skill set to deal with it.

Walking all the way down there, hoping Roxas was working today, he knew he _could_ do something, _should_ say something, and _would_; it was just a matter of working up the nerve… which, in seeing Roxas taking someone's order behind the counter, he didn't have.

God, he was such an ass.

But Roxas genuinely smiled when he got in line, a little upward curve of his lips that was neither big and fake or forced and tight. It was just a smile and it was just as soon gone but it was there, it was there… and while it wasn't a heartfelt confession of love, or a big kiss for the world to see, it gave Axel the confidence to pursue this wherever it went.

As Axel neared the front of line, which was longer than usual and the ringing of the bell above the door alerted him to even more people coming, and gave his order of a peppermint mocha, he opened his mouth, not quite sure what he was going to say but sure he was going to say at least something, when Roxas interrupted him. "Um, I have a lot of people in line…" he said, not quite looking at him while he counted Axel's change. Not exactly telling him to get out of the way but silently suggesting it.

Of course. He didn't even consider before if this was going to be awkward but apparently, it was. He didn't really care. Roxas smiled at him and climbed up his fire escape last night. He didn't give a shit if Roxas had some vulnerability issues. "Yeah, sure," he grinned, making sure Roxas knew that _he_ at least wasn't going to be weird about it and went to wait for Roxas to bring his drink.

He didn't. Instead, Blond Girl (whose real name Axel learned was Rikku but since it was practically the same as his best friend's and it was weird to think of it that way he preferred to just keep calling her that) delivered it with all smiles. "Hey there, Red!" she chirped, placing the red mug in front of him. "Sorry for the wait. Looks like we're swamped today." Blond Girl looked around at all the new people, mostly teenagers talking loudly with their fancy coffees. Axel had fancy coffees but at least he didn't talk loudly. "I miss the good old days when kids wouldn't even think about coming in here." She laughed, "Wow, I never thought I would actually say something like that, ever." Blond Girl sighed and smiled once more at him. "Well, have a nice day, I guess. Enjoy your mocha!"

Several hours passed and Axel started to get the distinct feeling that Roxas was avoiding him. The feeling started to creep on him as he waited and waited and every time he happened to look up from the random magazine he picked up Roxas just so happened to be on the opposite side of the room. He started to be really suspicious when Roxas lingered at the register or took extra time to wipe down tables that weren't dirty. At first, he was amused and then he steadily progressed to somewhere between hurt and pissed.

Hurt because he figured that they were way beyond acting like children and pissed because Roxas was blatantly ignoring him! That wasn't cool; friends, and Axel used the word with a little cringe, did not act like that. Grown-ups, and Axel used that word with a cringe also, did not act like that.

Thinking this, frowning a little to himself while he played with his empty cup, he happened to see from the corner of his eye the particular boy he was thinking about. He was delivering a large blue and small yellow mug to a duo of girls who were talking and laughing at a table that just so happened to be near the redhead.

He took a sharp breath and said, without thinking, "Roxas!"

The blond's head perked up, surprised blue eyes looking over at him and then blinking in question as he placed the mugs with a dull clack on the table. He lingered long enough for the girls to smile widely at him and thank him graciously for walking a total of, like, ten feet to give them their beverages before slowly backing away to where Axel sat. Meanwhile, Axel was stumbling over himself to figure out what to say.

_Dammit_, he thought frantically, _I don't have a plan! I need a plan! Fuck! _Roxas was just a few steps away from him but Axel was no closer to actually having something to say. He had an idea, of course he had an idea, but the _words_? The words just weren't coming to him. Roxas neared and opened his pretty little mouth before Axel could even get his brain together.

"You need a refill?"

Mentally, and Axel was sure not to let it show, he made a face at the boy. Really? _Really_? _You have to be kidding me_, he thought. _Just because I drank my gross coffee and called you over doesn't mean I want a freakin' refill. There is more to our relationship than _refills_! _He was opening his mouth to tell the kid so when Roxas picked up his red mug anyway and was turning away to go refill it for him. And Axel freaked, opening his mouth and saying something without even considering his words first.

"UH. My, my parents- my parents are divorced. Too, I mean. My parents are divorced, too," he stammered, wondering just what the hell he was saying as he said it. "So, um, I, like, I get it. So if you, uh, ever need to, like, talk? I'm here." Then he stilled, hands folded nervously as he watched Roxas for any kind of reaction.

The blond teen had stopped to listen to Axel ramble, facing away from him but with his head slightly turned Axel's way. He lingered in that spot for a moment more.

Then he walked away.

Almost instantly, Axel felt the blood in his body chill as if he'd been outside in the snow all day. He was crushed, more than crushed. He was effectively _bulldozed_ by Roxas's lack of response or any acknowledgement that he had spoken at all. What the hell, he asked himself, staring at his hands. Now what does that mean? If Roxas coming to him meant that he had a chance, what did Roxas completely turning away from him mean? That he was fucked? That he never had a chance? That Roxas was just playing with him for shits and giggles? Or that the blond just didn't see him as a person he wanted to discuss his personal problems with.

He was so wrapped up in his thoughts, mouth pursing angrily and brows furrowed downward, that he didn't hear Roxas walk right back to him, slowly, and place the full mug on the table.

After a moment where Roxas stood patiently, waiting for Axel to acknowledge him, the blond decided to sit. The high-pitched squeaking of the chair against the floor made Axel jump, eyes going wide as he saw Roxas bashfully sit, cheeks going pink as several customers glanced over at him.

A long moment passed, followed by another.

Then Roxas glanced up, licking his lips nervously, and looked right into Axel's eyes.

"So. Um. What are you doing tomorrow?"

Axel grinned.

(13) Cups Consumed

Unfortunately, as all good things do, winter break came to an end. Axel would have been more upset about his return to school if he didn't have important plans after school. That's right. _Important_ _plans_. After school. With Roxas.

_Yeah_.

Although, now that he thought about it, he didn't know exactly what sort of plans they had or how long these plans were going to last or even start. Roxas only nodded vaguely, lips at Axel's refill, when the redhead asked if he wanted to hang out or something. But the important thing was that they did have plans. With each other. At some point today. And that's the only detail that really matters, isn't it?

When he told Riku this, sitting in their English class and probably supposed to be doing something but Axel hadn't been paying attention because his brain was all over the place in happiness, his friend spared one long dry look before laughing once and rolling his eyes. "It sure is, Ax. It sure is."

Whatever, Riku could hate if he wanted to, he didn't fucking care. All he cared about at the end of the day was the text in his pocket from an obvious but unknown number asking if it was okay if they met at the shop. He gave Roxas his number yesterday after slowly but surely digging up the courage at the very last minute. Throughout the night he couldn't sleep, looking at his phone every two minutes, thinking every little noise was him receiving a text from the teen.

At one point last night he did receive a text late at night but it was from Demyx, wondering about homework. Axel was _so_ disappointed.

The dismissing bell couldn't have come sooner. Actually, it could've, since most of his teachers didn't actually expect him, a senior who just came back from break, to retain any knowledge. He didn't understand why they couldn't have just let him out early. He had somewhere to be, dammit!

The bell on the entrance door to Old Fashioned Joe, however, he could've done without. On the way there, he started to get nervous butterflies despite himself. It seemed louder than usual and like a lot of people looked at him when he came in. He was blushing and had no idea what to do with himself. Did he wait for Roxas? Was Roxas here? Was he too early? Late? Did Roxas get mad 'cause he waited so long and went home, pissed? Fuck, fuck, fuck!

"Hey!" Axel jumped at the voice behind him. Roxas, cheeks a little rosy from the cold, was behind him, trying to get through the door that Axel was standing in the way of. "Dude. Move," he laughed, giving Axel a look. When the redhead did, face burning because _ohmygod_ he was lame, Roxas walked right past him to behind the counter, smiling at Blond Girl as he did so. As he started to press buttons on the machines, he turned back to look at Axel, who followed him up there. "What do you want? It's on the house."

"Um, you don't have to do that. I can pay," he said, moving to take out his wallet.

Roxas shook his head. "Dude, really. It's on the house. My dad won't notice two cups. Besides, no one's going to tattle on me, right, Rikku?" He looked pointedly at the girl, mock glaring.

She turned her back to them, shaking a bottle of whipped cream. "I never saw a thing," she announced. "It's your day off, remember? I didn't even see you today."

The teen grinned and look back at him. "So? What do you want?"

The redhead smiled and put away his wallet. _You, just you_. "I guess I'll take a…white peppermint mocha? Is that different from the normal peppermint mocha? I mean…I dunno what I mean," he ended lamely.

"Well, yeah, duh. White mochas use white chocolate instead of normal milk chocolate," he informed Axel with a tone of voice he usually assumed came with the job of teaching. Like it was common sense, like he should already know these things. "The peppermint is the same though."

"Oh," he stated, feeling stupid.

"But, yeah. It'll be done in a few." Roxas turned around and stared at him with his penetrating blue eyes. He mouth was set in an unintentional frown, his set expression when he didn't make the effort (or maybe he just wasn't feeling it) to smile. "So. Where are we going today?"

"I dunno, I thought you had a plan."

"Oh. I thought you had a plan."

"Why would _I_ have a plan? You're the one who dragged me out here on a cold winter afternoon!" _Oh please, _his subconscious sneered, sounding very much like Riku again. _You would have come even if he hadn't. _Roxas looked like he was going to say something mean, the little pout he got when he thought people needed to be harshly rebuked present. "Do you want to go anywhere?"

Roxas slowly dropped his mad face, thinking. "Well, I don't want to stay here."

Axel grinned. "Because that really narrows it down."

"Shut up. Well, what? Do you have anywhere in mind?"

He did not. "I do not." The machine beeped and Roxas turned to do whatever he did with it. Axel could hear the sound of the lids being snapped onto the to-go cups. As he came back, giving Axel his own steaming hot cup, Axel clicked his tongue and had a great idea.

"So let's go nowhere."

Being nowhere consisted of being actually everywhere, but with no destination in mind. It wasn't as cold as Axel thought it was. But maybe that was Roxas staying close to him at all times. Warm, fuzzy feeling, perhaps. No. That was too girly and weird for him. Anyway, it wasn't too cold. It wasn't even snowing and there wasn't a foot of snow on the ground like usual. Only a couple of inches.

They walked up and left and down and right to the main street, where all the fancy stores were. Bookstores, clothing stores, antique stores, weird stores, food stores, skateboard stores, arty stores, a store full of nothing but different types of paper, a store full of puppies and kittens that looked at them with their big eyes and begged to be taken home. As soon as he started losing feeling in his toes, Axel was a little antsy to get down to business.

Business being, of course, Roxas and his parental problems. That's why they got together right? To talk, maybe? Weren't those his exact words? He wasn't sure if he was messing up by not mentioning it and continuing on walking around. Like, didn't Roxas want to talk? Isn't that why Roxas asked him out here? So he asked.

"So, um," Axel started nervously, glancing down at Roxas. "I don't wanna sound rude but, uh, what did you call me out here for?"

Roxas blinked and extracted his lips from the cup to look at him, frowning maybe confusedly. It was hard to tell his confused look from his mad look sometimes.

"I mean, if you just want to hang out and walk around, you know, I'm cool with that. It's just, I kinda got the feeling you wanted to talk about your parents."

"My parents," Roxas repeated dryly.

"Yeah. Your parents." The redhead fiddled with his cooling cup of fancy coffee. He hadn't taken more than a few sips. Someone walking on the sidewalk shoved him a little as he or she walked past, a little of the drink flew out and splattered on the floor. Axel didn't really notice, too wrapped up in appearing to be cool and not totally emotionally invested right now. He stared at Roxas and Roxas stared right back at him. Like they were having a very intense staring contest.

Axel won as Roxas glanced away and huffed out a dry laugh. "My parents, right." He rolled his pretty blue eyes. "Where would I even start?"

Someone else shoved him, a girl this time, he could hear her shrill laugh, and Axel looked around. "Well," he started with a smile. "We could start by moving over to that bench right over there. I don't think people are too happy that we're just standing in the middle of the sidewalk like this." Roxas smiled faintly and followed him to the freezing cold metal of the sidewalk bench. They sat and Roxas started hesitantly.

"So… my parents are getting a divorce. Probably. I mean, it's not like they actually told me they're getting a divorce. They haven't even acknowledged the fact that something's wrong. I mean, no one's acknowledged the fact that anything's wrong. Not even Hayner, he's my best friend," Roxas informed him, "sees that anything's wrong."

"Do you know what's wrong?"

Roxas glanced at him before looking back at his shoes, exhaling, breath visible in the cold air. "It's like I said. They don't tell me things. But I'm eighty-nine percent sure it's about money." His blue eyes glued themselves to Axel's green. "What about yours?"

"My parents?" Axel clicked his tongue and thought, trying to remember that time. "My parents didn't love each other. Maybe once they did but not anymore. Sometimes you just lose it. Sometimes you just don't love or even _like_ each other the way you did when you first met."

The boy next to him nodded his head and Axel felt slight pride in the fact that he could relate and give advice and generally understand what Roxas was going through. Not even the kid's _best friend _knew what was going on. Axel was special and he liked the thought of that. "That makes sense, too, I guess. But. But they've been married for, like, twenty years! If they didn't love each other then shouldn't they know by now? How could they just pretend all this time?" he added, addressing the red brick of the sidewalk. "I don't get it."

"Well…" Axel sighed and ran a hand through his hair, looking up at the cloudy sky. It was probably going to snow tonight. "What you mean? You think they should've spilt up when you were a kid? You think you would have been happy with your parents divorced? 'Cause that just not how it works. I mean, I understand- I understand what you're saying but I also think your parents did good by not doing this when you were seven. I mean, did you have a good childhood?"

The blond was quiet, then murmuring, mouth pursed like a grumpy child who was being reprimanded, "I guess so."

"You think you would have turned out different if they started fighting when you were a kid? I think they did good holding it together for you. Because, believe me, if that's the case," he paused, realized sadly that it wasn't the case for _him_. "Then you _are_ the reason they held it together. And that alone should be enough for you to stop being mad at your parents."

Roxas huffed, making a face like he didn't like that thought very much: being angry was as common to a teen as zits. "But still, they shouldn't act like nothing's happening."

"But don't you see? They probably don't want you to know that something happening…"

"What does that even mean?"

"It means that they don't want to hurt you with the news that their marriage isn't perfect. They probably don't want to hurt themselves with admitting that their marriage isn't perfect." Axel laughed an unfunny laugh, looking at the teen. "Don't you get it? Their marriage is falling apart; if that's scary for you, imagine how scary it is for them. Twenty years of living in the same home, raising their kids, and being together side by side. And now it's crumbling at their feet? I don't know about you, but if I were your parents, I would want to wait and see before I just say it's over and give up just like that. I wouldn't want to just throw in the towel and be done with it or move a thousand miles away and start a new life…" he went quiet.

"Is that what happened to you?"

The older teen blew out a long breath, white mist shooting out in a way that reminded him of blowing out smoke from a cigarette. He didn't look at Roxas though the teen was staring curiously at him. "Yeah," he said shortly. "Something like that."

He didn't want to elaborate but Roxas was staring at him with his big blues eyes, innocently curious, cold lips asking him about it. So Axel sighed and started to jiggle his foot like he noticed he did when he was stressed. He decided to just get it over with. He hated telling this story.

"My Dad met my Mom. They got married young. They had me before they could even legally drink. My Dad, I guess, realized that he was twenty with a wife and a kid and didn't like that thought. So he left my Mom and me and went to the west coast. From what I've managed to learn, he has a new home, a new wife, three new kids, and a new life. I was, like, real little when he left and he never bothered to keep in touch with me so I don't miss him at all," he stated, feeling a little bitter. He clicked his tongue and glanced at the blond teen next to him, who looked a little shocked. "So. Yeah. I mean, Roxas, when I say you have it good, I mean you really do have it good."

Roxas nodded slowly and looked back at the ground, a little slump in his shoulders. "Yeah, I can understand that. I mean…I guess. I dunno, I feel like I'm whining now." He quirked a little apologetic smile. "I'm happy my parents held to together. I'm just frustrated that it seems like I'm the only person who actually acknowledges it, you know? Like. I would be more understanding if they had a fight and later my Dad ranted about it to me. 'Cause then it would be real. I mean, then I would know that what I think is going on is really going on. And then I would know that I'm not crazy."

So Axel nodded, that was reasonable. "I get that. Like, you don't want to be treated like a little kid who can't handle the truth."

"Exactly!" Roxas cried, nodding urgently. "That's how it is. I mean, I'm seventeen, I think I can deal with the fact that my parents won't live in the same house anymore. It would be better than everyone ignoring it like it isn't happening. Everyone freaking ignores it. That's what makes me pissed. And it's just so stupid and complicated and no one gets it so I get mad." He sighed, long and strong like he was exhaling everything out of himself. He looked over at Axel, a thankful smile on his face. "Thanks, man."

"For what?"

"'Cause you get it."

(14) Cups of Coffee

For some reason, Axel's teachers thought it would be an awesome idea to give him loads of homework the second day back from school and make it due the following day. While they didn't exactly have plans to hang out, Axel figured since he'd been there just about every day Roxas would be expecting him anyway. He sent Roxas a message, smiling over the fact that he could do that now, explaining his predicament. Roxas replied a few minutes later, in horrendous text talk: _Its ok. Rikkus sick so I have to work til closing. I'll see you 2morrow. _

The next day came and Axel walked over to Old Fashioned Joe just like usual. Roxas was waiting for him, talking in a low voice to Sora who was making an order. Roxas was not dressed in the usual uniform. It was a Friday and usually Roxas had to work on Fridays because they were busy. "You're not working today?"

"No. I got the day off because I worked for Rikku yesterday," he explained, pointing to Rikku who was making an angry face at a cocky looking blond man. The man was laughing in spite of her. "I think that's her boyfriend," Roxas whispered to him. "She always says he isn't but I think she's lying."

"Huh," Axel said, looking at them. They sort of had that juvenile I-pull-your-hair-because-I-like-you thing going on. It was sort of adorable. Roxas was watching them, fascinated. Now that was _definitely_ cute. He ordered a coffee and by the time Sora finished and fastened its cap on, Roxas was done watching the non-couple.

"I'm _starving_."

So they went to get a hot dog at the place two streets down and a block to the right called Underworld. There was nothing terribly dark about the place, besides the black chalkboard walls and sometimes the drawings people did on them. Axel got a Cerberus dog and Roxas got a Phili dog.

"Why is it called a Phili dog?" He asked, sounding truly stumped as he bit into his hot dog with the most delicious sweet chili on it Axel had ever had.

"It's a chili dog. Phili rhymes with chili," he shrugged. "I don't actually know. I think this place is supposed to have a Greek mythology thing going on." Cerberus was a huge three-headed dog. Axel's three hot dogs in a huge bun. Larxene always got the Medusa, which was spaghetti. Demyx once got some weird looking thing called The Hades which was the spiciest thing on the planet considering how much he sweated when he ate it. But that could've been because Demyx is a wimp and can't handle spices very well. After a few times here Axel started to get the theme.

"Huh. That's pretty cool. How did you find this place? I mean, it's like down an alley," he added, an eyebrow raised. Roxas had been looking pretty nervous as soon as they turned in here.

Axel laughed, remembering. "Funny story actually. Well, not really. It might've been a you-had-to-be-there moment. It was hilarious at the time. Demyx, one of my best friends, was high and was getting the munchies even though he'd already eaten his weight in food. We were at a friend's house, who lives over there," Axel pointed to the east. "I was the DD and everyone had pretty much disappeared from me so I didn't want to lose Dem. And he was, like, I wanna a hot dog, I wanna hot dog. So when we hit the street he, like, took off running and I was running after him because, you know, it is a little sketchy down here and I didn't want him to get stabbed. And he's making turns and changing directions and when I finally caught up to him he was turning into this place! And I was like, what the hell are you doing? And he said, I'm never gonna forget this, I wanna a hotdog."

Roxas was laughing. "What? Had he been here before?"

"No. Never in his life had he been here, but he, like, smelled it, I guess. I dunno, that whole night was crazy. He loves this place, though, comes here all the time. Dem's a trip," he laughed, shoving the last huge bite in his mouth.

"He sounds like it," Roxas said warily as Axel's pocket started to jingle. The redhead had a little trouble getting it out of his tighter jeans but when he got it out, he laughed at the screen.

"Speaking of him. Hey, Demyx," he said.

"_Dude. Come pick me up," _came the muffled reply. Axel frowned.

"Why?"

"_Just freaking pick me up, dammit!" _Demyx shouted and then sniffled loudly.

"Are you crying?" Roxas looked up in alarm, chili on the corner of his mouth.

"_No." _He sniffled again, choked on a little sob. _"….yes."_

Axel sighed, rubbing his forehead and glancing away from Roxas. "Where are you?" Demyx blubbered where he was and promised to stay put when Axel heard him slur his words. Demyx only slurred his words when he was super drunk. When he hung up his phone, Roxas was watching him, all done.

"What happened?"

"Who knows? Dem's drunk, though; I'm gonna go pick him up and drag him to my place."

"Do you need any help? I have my car," Roxas offered, looking genuinely concerned. Axel was tempted but at the same time, he didn't really want Roxas seeing the ugly side of his friends. Talking about them being crazy is fine but actually seeing it? Not cool.

"Actually, I-"

He was just about to say something along those lines when Roxas spoke again. "It's going to take you forever to walk there and back and it's below freezing outside."

"-would love a ride, thank you."

They trekked back to the café and got into the car that Axel recognized from the day Sora drove him back to his place to pick up Riku. Speaking of Riku, well not really speaking of him but thinking of him, he hadn't been over as much as usual. Probably sleeping over at Sora's, he bet, frowning as he glanced over at Roxas who was taking all of the safety precautions. He wondered if he would ever get to sleep over. He told Roxas the address, which was twenty minutes away and the teen was right, it was way too far to walk.

"Okay," Roxas started as he began driving. "Um. Okay. I just got my license a few months ago so I'm not an expert driver so I would appreciate if you didn't like, try to distract stuff and me while I drive. Like talking." Roxas's ears were burning, Axel figured he was embarrassed by his inexperience so he dropped it and stayed obediently quiet.

Demyx was waiting outside for them.

Or more accurately, he was just sleeping outside in the snow, people wrapped tightly in thick coats stepping over him warily. Both he and Roxas stared at the lump on the sidewalk, Roxas stunned and worried while Axel was primarily amused with disbelief. What a goof.

"…Is that your friend? Is he okay?"

"Oh yeah," Axel assured him as he got out of the car. "He's just sleepy." The snow crunched under his feet as he meandered over to his friend. He nudged Demyx's head with his shoe, eliciting an irritated grumble and a glare from bloodshot eyes. "Oh good," he said sweetly. "You're not dead! I thought I was gonna have to explain all this to your mother."

"Shut up!" Demyx shouted at him as he sat up slowly. He was frowning deeply and his hair was floppy. He looked pretty pathetic. "Don't do that. Don't talk to me like that. Can't you see I'm hurting? I was stabbed…"

"You were stabbed?"

"Yesssss." Demyx looked up at him pitifully. "He stabbed me in the 'eart. Look." He unzipped his jacket dramatically, pulling it off to show him his perfectly unbloody, unstabbed chest.

"I thought you said someone stabbed you, buddy. Augh," Axel grunted as he picked the drunken boy up by his underarms. His friend wobbled ungracefully on his feet, almost falling back over. How the police hadn't picked him up already was beyond him.

"Figuratively," Demyx mumbled, sighing loudly. "Or maybe really. I don't remember. Fuck!" He swore when he knocked his head on the top of the car. Axel laughed. "You're a jerk. You're a stupid jerk. Be nice to me. I was fucking stabbed: you need to me nice to me."

"You were stabbed?" Roxas's eyes were wider than Axel had ever seen them be and his mouth just dropped agape in shock. Axel rolled his eyes.

"Yeah. Yeah, you know what? I was. I was fucking stabbed. In the 'eart."

"Who stabbed you?" Poor little Roxas was freaking out, turning around to see if his backseat was now covered in blood.

"By the love of my life!" Demyx moaned, leaning on his friend like he didn't have the bones to hold himself up. "Augh. You think everything's okay and then bam! They stab you."

"He wasn't really stabbed," Axel explained. "It's a figure of speech."

"Ooooh," Roxas said, eyes on the road now, being even more careful and cautious than before.

"How do you do something like that?" Demyx asked them but didn't ask them at the same time. "I mean, fuck, you gotta be one cold bastard. With, like, no… no… You gotta be a douche. A super douche. Ohhh, Axeeeeluh," he whined into the older teen's jacket. "Why was he a suuupperrrrrr douche? I liked him, I reeeeeeally fuckin' did."

"Take a left up here, Roxas," Axel told him while he patted his friend's head gingerly. He was actually somewhat proud that he had this whole routine down.

"Roxas?" Demyx lifted up his head to squint at their driver, confusion on his face shifting to sudden fascinated recognition. "_Roxas_? HAY, hay Roxas! Are you, are you gay?"

.

"," said Demyx, making these crazy eyes. "Hay, man. Are you gay? 'Cause I'm, I'm gay, you know, and, uh, and Axel," he clapped the stunned man on the shoulder. "He's, uh, he's gay. And if you're gay then we'll all be gay! Even that fuckin asshole, 'cause if you suck my dick, then you're gay, that's IT. Don't try to fuckin' tell me you're not, 'cause you are, you know?" He huffed, flopping back onto Axel, looking pathetically at the roof of the car.

Axel, still stunned at Demyx's previous outburst, asked, "Who are we talking about again?"

"Zex, man. I love him."

"I thought you hated him."

"No. I love him."

Axel tried to run the name _Zex_ through his brain, trying to pin a face to it. He thought and thought and thought but in the end, he had to admit that he had no idea who this person is. He was probably a private school kid. He wondered if Roxas knew him. The teen didn't seem to be paying attention to them, brow furrowed as he watched the road. They were near Axel's apartment building. "Well, buddy. If I see him I'll punch him in the nuts."

"Thanks, man," Demyx sighed, closing his eyes. "You're nice."

Later, when he was having to pull Demyx out of the car because he fell asleep with Roxas's help, he assured the worried looking boy, "This doesn't happen all the time. I promise." Roxas laughed.

"It's okay. It was actually kinda fun," Roxas said, looking pleasantly surprised as he pulled the drunk teen out of his car. "He's funny. It was an experience anyway."

"Yeah," Axel winced, wondering what the whole ordeal must look like. With Roxas's help he maneuvered his friend onto his back so he could carry him up several flights of stairs. "You won't have to do this again."

"No, really. I didn't mind. I-Oh hey! Look! It's snowing," he said softly, pointing up to the sky. And so it was, gentle falling down in pretty little snowflakes, landing softly on buildings and cars and the roads. On Demyx's passed out face, on Axel's hair, on Roxas who was staring up into the sky with something like childlike wonder on his face, lips red from the cold, cheeks flushed, looking very kissable and cute.

Axel took a step forward that Roxas didn't notice but the blond noticed the second step, noticed innocently the decreased space between them. And Roxas just looked at him, smiling…confusedly? Is that what that expression is? Roxas didn't…he didn't know that… Fuck, fuck, fuck, he was stupid.

Axel stepped away awkwardly and hoped it looked like he struggled with Demyx for a second. He coughed and started walking slowly toward his door. "Um. Bye."

"Bye," Roxas waved, getting in his car and waiting until Axel was safely inside before he drove off.

(15) Cups of Coffee

"So what's the deal with your friends?" Roxas asked, the day after Axel almost slipped and planted one on him. Axel was munching on cookies Roxas's mom apparently made for the workers. By the time Roxas actually got around to telling him this, he had two in his mouth. He blinked and tried to swallow his mouthful of cookie goop, choking a little before managing it get down. His eyes watered a little.

"My friends?" He coughed, slapping his chest. "What about them?"

"I dunno, it's just a little weird to me that you allow them to always crash at your place when they get trashed. Like a few days ago," Roxas said, looking down at him. Axel was sitting cross-legged behind the counter because there were no seats available and sitting behind the counter seemed like a cool idea. His butt was starting to go numb though.

"Oh, that." Axel frowned. "Well, I mean. I would rather they be at my place then someone else's. Haven't I said this before?" Roxas shrugged, clearly not remembering. "Well, I mean. I look after my friends. I somehow made friends with all misfits with crappy home situations. And since I don't, they like it at my place. It's a nice break from their hell of a life. And why wouldn't you want to do that for someone if you could?" He glanced over at Roxas, not expecting him to say anything but wanting to see his expression. "It's what friends do for each other. And they've done the same for me for so it's not like they're taking advantage of my supreme generosity. I mean, wouldn't your best friend do that for you?"

Roxas thought. "Hayner? Yeah, I suppose he would. He would bitch about it but I think he would. What you do sounds more like something my friend Olette would do. Or Naminé. Naminé is really nice like that. She'll do everything she can to help someone out, even if she hardly knows them."

"Naminé? Oh right, your girlfriend," Axel teased.

"She is not my girlfriend!" Roxas protested, pouting and glaring. "I mean. Once, yeah, for like three minutes. But that was like four years ago."

Whoa! This was news. "What? You actually dated her? And here I was starting to think you were asexual." The thought had crossed his mind. "So? What was it like? She pretty? You guys get hot and heavy?" Ugh, he couldn't even think about Roxas and other people.

The teen gave him a look, a cross between amusement and irritation. He opened his mouth to say something, when a pretty redhead came up, smiling a big smile. They talked a little bit and Axel picked at the wood under him. When she left, Roxas got to making a cup for her and finally paid attention to him again. "It was for, like, a week and I was thirteen so there was no getting 'hot and heavy'. She kinda looked like a boy back then but she's real pretty now." Roxas paused as he fastened a lid onto the cup. "…You would like her."

Axel barked out a laugh. "No. Probably not my type," he added, hoping Roxas would get the hint. The teen just smiled and shook his head, leaving for a moment, probably to give Pretty Redhead Girl her drink. Axel picked at the floor again, ready to slyly ask Roxas what his type is, hoping it went something along the lines of male, tall, and skinny, red hair.

But when Roxas came back, he didn't get the chance to. "But yeah," the blond said as he came back. "I think it's really cool that you do that for them, letting them stay with you I mean. I'm glad at least, with the way everything has been at home recently it's nice to know I have the option of actually going somewhere instead of walking around all night."

"You used to walk around all night?" He asked incredulously. "You could have been kidnapped! Or mugged! Or killed! Or mugged and then kidnapped and then killed! That's dangerous; you shouldn't do that, Rox. Like, really," he said, making sure Roxas knew he was serious. "That's bad, just come to my apartment next time."

Roxas smiled, an amused and surprised smile, as if he didn't know Axel would be concerned over his well-being. "Okay, I'll do that. You should come to my house sometime. For fun. We can hang out or something."

The older teen laughed, on the inside freaking out about the prospect. "Okay, I'll do that."

(16) Cups of Coffee

It was a blizzard out.

Snow freaking everywhere, wind throwing it all over the place, trees across the road from Roxas's house swaying their branches in a strangely poetic way. They sort of looked like they were dancing. Axel didn't connect the dancingness until Roxas pointed it out but now that he was looking, they sort of did look like they were doing some strange dance to no music other than the frequent howl of the wind. Their frozen branches glinted when the odd ray of sunshine shown through the cracks of clouds.

Axel sighed and ran a hand through his hair, glancing over at Roxas with a good-natured scowl. An hour with the kid and look at him, he was getting so sappy he could write lovey-dovey teen fiction. If he hung out with Roxas every day, he would sell millions. Possibly billions.

Roxas was contemplating the weather with a thoughtful look, tilting his head to one side. He made a decisive grunt, nodding to himself. "We should definitely go out there."

Slowly, Axel turned to him. He made sure his thoughts about that idea were obvious. "Excuse me?"

Now Roxas turned to him, boyish excitement lighting up his features. He didn't seem to notice the look of pure horror on Axel's face. "Yeah. We could have a snowball fight."

The redhead looked from Roxas's smiling face to the foot of snow outside and then back to Roxas. He faked a smile. "Surrrrrrrre." Apparently Roxas didn't get his sarcasm because he got up and went to his closet, digging around for awhile before coming out with horrendously puffy coats in equally horrendous neon purple.

"We can wear _these_!"

"Oh my god." Axel eyed the two abominations. "Do you keep those just for these occasions?"

Roxas tossed him one and put on the other. "My grandma got them for me and Sora forever ago. Doesn't she have great taste?" He chuckled, zipping it up. He looked like a very long and shiny grape. Very sexy. Axel laughed and put his one too, it actually sort of fit. He wrapped his scarf around his face while Roxas put his beanie and another furry earflap hat on top of that. Axel could hear the wind and snow crashing against the side of Roxas's house and already felt cold.

The blond teen practically flew out of the door, jumping into the snow that went easily to his ankles as Axel wandered out warily, strong wind pushing him slightly to the left. He wasn't watching Roxas, which he should have been, because a moment later something came throttling toward him, hitting him in the head. He felt the iciness of the snow and looked at the laughing blond teen with betrayal before he packed snow into a ball shape and threw it at him as well.

It missed horribly but the message was clear: this means war.

Roxas squawked as the snowball flew past him and ran away to make cover behind a tree in his front yard. There weren't many trees in low town but uptown there were, they made for perfect hiding places as he and Roxas alternately packed more ammunition and fired upon their enemy. Axel somehow lost his scarf a while ago and had snow from perfectly aimed snow missiles going down his neck. Most of his snowballs didn't go where he intended but he did manage to hit Roxas in the face once. It was kinda awesome.

While he was packing snow into tight little balls, he noticed that the hail of snow that was coming from Roxas's direction had stopped. The teen was probably making more like he was… WHICH LEFT HIM VULNERABLE TO A SNEAK ATTACK!

The startled yelp was satisfying even though his snowball missed by at least a foot. As was Roxas's frantic lunge to escape his reach, tumbling and scrambling to getaway. All of his ammunition was lost in the white snow so he gave chase. over things and changing direction to avoid being caught. Eventually they just started laughing, bursting out into a fit when he was so, so _close_ all he had to do was _reach _and- Roxas would quickly change directions and escape, giggling, from his grasp.

"Oh, man," Axel gasped, chilly air entering his lungs as he stopped, hands on his knees, chest fucking killing him. "Dude. I'm done. I'm not cut out for this shit! Let's go back insiiiiiide," he whined. His hands were cold, his face was cold, he couldn't even feel his nose, and everything else was cold. He'd entertained Roxas for long enough, he was done, he'd had enough.

"Oh, come on, Axel! Don't throw a hissy. It's not even windy anymore!" he shouted, gesturing to the not windy air. Axel hadn't noticed before. He jogged up to Roxas, sides hurting.

The wind only died down for a short while, as was normal for Bastion winters. Strong winds, blizzards, a short reprieve, and then they started back up again. Just as he reached the teen, they started back up again, hurtling toward them, shaking the trees even stronger than before. The snow hit them like snowballs, sting of ice on skin. The hat Roxas was wearing flew off his head and down the street, never to be seen again.

Axel, blinded by the sudden onset of snow, pulled Roxas to him as he turned away from the wind, snow flinging itself on his back. "Are you okay?" he shouted over the wind, wiping snow from his face. Roxas was looking at him, probably stunned by the sudden change in weather. Big, blue eyes and flushed cheeks.

His face was freezing, snow clinging to every surface of his body, feeling the harsh wind from the places Axel wasn't already blocking. He was slightly stunned by the sudden change in weather but more so by Axel grabbing him and turning him away from the wind. They were so close to each other. Roxas nodded numbly, staring up at him, and licked his lips, taking a deep breath and taking a step toward him, making them even closer.

Roxas nodded at him, looking a little scared with his wide eyes, which made him a little nervous and uncomfortable. They weren't far from his house, still in the teen's yard. "C'mon, let's go," he said, tugging the boy a little until he got the hint that they were going to run for it. When they made it inside, the door slamming behind them, they slumped for a while and then started laughing. Roxas offered him a cup of coffee.

(17) Cups of Coffee

It was a Saturday and Axel was busy all day writing a paper that his stupid psycho English teacher wanted the following Monday. How was it even possible to write an eight-page paper in three days? He didn't even have enough thoughts to fill up eight pages! While grumbling about crazy menopausal teachers and their stupid books and stupid papers, the hours slipped by as one page by one page he drafted up a decent paper. When his poor abused hand developed a painful cramp, he decided to call a break.

Lying on his mattress, he heard the muffled noise of the front door being unlocked and his mother's distinct coming home ritual. She sighed long and loud, kicking off her shoes and throwing her bag on the kitchen counter. She hung up her coat. Opened the fridge. Closed the fridge. Then she started to walk toward her room.

"Hello, Axel!"

"Hey, Mom," he answered back loudly, staring at his ceiling blankly. He heard the shower start, pipes humming dully, the consistent sound of water running filling the apartment. He started wondering how the pipes worked, what mechanism made it flow, how they made that weird bumpy texture that was all over his ceiling, and what was for dinner.

He was so caught up in his musings, staring unwavering at the ceiling, that when a loud clanking started suddenly, Axel jumped so hard he almost fell off the bed. Heart jumping almost painfully in his chest, he looked over to his window, where he left the blinds open so light could come in. Roxas was crouched in front of it, much like that first night, waving merrily at him like this was perfectly normal, like he did this all the time. He was wearing that white beanie Axel liked.

"Roxas. Just what the hell are you doing?" he said as soon as he opened his window. "Do you know what time it is? Does your mother know where you are?" He said this jokingly, much in the way he and Riku bickered and hoped Roxas got it and didn't think he was being patronizing.

Thankfully, Roxas laughed, pushing him out of the way to crawl in. He sure was getting cozy for someone who'd only been in his room, like, twice. He used only one hand, keeping the other steady and far away. When Axel looked closer, he saw that Roxas had a to-go cup in his hand. "Shut up, I brought you coffee, "he smiled big and cheesy, presenting him the cup like it was an offering to a god. "I'm climbing through your window. It's like nine. My mom thinks I'm at Hayner's."

At this, Axel frowned while he took the cup and placed it on his nightstand; displeased Roxas had to lie to come here. "Why?"

Roxas wrinkled his nose. "You really think my mom would let me come _here_, to some guy's, whom she's never met, house to spend the night? Oh and also that he lives in low-town? It took my mom a _year_ to even let me sleep over at Hayner's sometimes. She's like an overprotective mother _bear_."

Mentally picturing Roxas's overprotective mother being a bear, Axel smiled and chuckled a little. But he was still curious. "Why are you here exactly?" Because, other than that night, Roxas had never been to his home or even suggested being at his home.

Roxas stilled in the middle of taking off his shoes. Axel couldn't see his eyes, blue hidden by a fringe of blond hair. He shrugged. "You know. I just…I just didn't want to be there anymore. I mean," he struggled to say, and resumed taking off his shoes. "I mean, after a few months of this, I can sorta tell when they're going to have a fight. I just didn't want to be around it. This is okay, right?"

_It's definitely more than okay_, Axel wanted to say. _It's more like a dream come true_. But he didn't want Roxas to know that so he said, "Nah, man. It's cool."

"Cool." The younger teen smiled. "So have you seen Riku recently?"

"…Yeah, why?"

"Oh, no reason. Just, could you tell him that it'd be cool if Sora was home every once in awhile?"

Axel laughed, going to sit on his bed again. "Yeah, right. You think he'd listen to me? Pssht. He'd make sure Sora was home _less_ just in spite."

Roxas made an unsatisfied face, scrunched up into a not-really-mad frown. "Yeah, well, tell him anyway. I'm sick of Sora leaving me all alone with our parents. He takes the car so I can't go anywhere too," he added as Axel started to say something.

"Oooooh," Axel winced. "I don't you'd want it very much after they've had it."

"…you don't think-?"

"I don't want to but yeah, most likely."

"Eww. I don't want to think about my brother having sex," he made a face and shook his head, like that would dislodge the thought permanently. Axel laughed, getting rid of the image of his best friend having sex with the brother of the boy he liked. Ugh, the whole situation sounded like it belonged on a mid-morning soap opera. "But at least he's not doing it at home. Although, I don't really think my parents would notice anyway," he said dryly.

"Still bad?"

"I would say it's the same but they seem to be more wrapped up in it, if that makes any sense." Roxas paused and then added, "But I did overhear my Dad saying that we were making more money at the shop, so maybe things will get better soon."

"Yeah, maybe, but I-"

"Axel!" his mother shouted from outside the door, knocking. He hadn't even heard the shower go off, too wrapped up in Roxas. She poked her head through the door since he didn't say she couldn't otherwise, mouth open to speak but stopping when she saw Roxas sitting in his room. "Oh. Hi there," she said, as friendly as could be. "I'm Axel's mom, Tifa. I just got done making dinner, Axel. Breakfast for dinner, your favorite." She smiled wide at him and then wider at Roxas before bashfully leaving.

Axel hid his red face in his hands while Roxas laughed. "So that's your mom. She's real pretty. You look nothing like her."

"Are you saying I'm not pretty Roxas?" He threw his pillow at him playfully. "Learn some manners, young man." Roxas laughingly caught it, smiling awkwardly. Axel shifted on his bed nervously. "So, um, you want some? Breakfast for dinner, my favorite. Pancakes."

"I LOVE pancakes."

And so they ate pancakes, watching TV with his mom and making comments on it every now again. It was very surreal, he didn't expect Roxas to come and have a very domestic meal with them. He didn't really expect him to fit in immediately, just like that. Even Riku was awkward the first few times he ate Axel's mother's dinner, as if he felt he didn't belong. Roxas just melded in perfectly, like it was no big deal and behaved like it might become a routine thing. Axel liked the thought of that.

His Mom gave him a mom-look when they went to bed, saying with her dark eyes something along the lines of 'Please don't have sex. Please don't have sex.' And Axel bashfully retreated, glaring at her indignantly with a burning red face. Roxas went to straight to sleep, curling up and saying goodnight. It took Axel longer, heart beating too fast to sleep, even with Roxas's almost hypnotically even breaths trying to lure him to sleep. He didn't know why, actually he did, it wasn't every night someone he actually had romantic interest in climbed in his bed. Not since his crush on Larxene anyway and one swift kick to the crotch had taken care of that.

When he was absolutely sure the younger teen had fallen asleep, he turned over and looked at him, peacefully sleeping. A piece of hair was in his face so Axel brushed it away and really liked being able to do that, brush his hair away. It was very… almost intimate without really touching. After he looked a while more he started to feel like a creep and wondered what it looked like, him staring like this, so he turned over and fell asleep. He dreamt of nothing but it was a good nothing, a comforting nothing. And when he woke up, Roxas was still asleep next to him. And Axel smiled, brushing away a piece of hair in his face.

And then he realized there were only five more cups of coffee left.

(18) Cups of Coffee

The eighteenth cup of coffee was taken to go. Actually, it was _given_ to go. When Axel ducked under the door of Roxas's car, a small cup was already waiting for him, steam rising up softly. It was so cold outside, even walking the few feet from the building to curb made Axel's nose sting painfully. Even though he didn't want to take it, because he would be that much closer to the end, he cheered at the sight of the hot cup, taking it to warm up his fingers while Roxas started to pull away.

"Where are we going today?" he asked, somewhat not looking forward to it because that meant they would have to leave the safe, warm paradise of the car. It was so fucking cold outside.

Roxas watched the road cautiously, nervous like the sixteen year old he was. "Ummm…" he murmured as he merged into the lanes of traffic, checking behind him a few more times than needed. "I was thinking maybe we would go to this place I really like. I think you would like it, too…"

The redhead smiled to himself as he looked at the passing scenery. He was giddy on the inside, tingly warmness expanding throughout his entire body. He sighed mentally, happy. Some soft sounding music was playing on the radio that Roxas didn't seem to be listening to. He felt a little stupid but he thought the moment was a sort of romantic. He didn't say anything the entire ride, obeying rule number 1: thou shalt not talkith to Roxas whileith he is drivingith. But he wanted to, he was itching to ask if the teen had listened to those CDs he gave him and if he liked them and if he didn't like them. He hoped he liked them.

Several turns and stoplights later, Roxas parked quietly on the side of the road right before a bridge. It had a weird clock lodged in it, probably just in case anyone driving under it needed to know what time it was. And didn't have a watch…or a cell phone…or a working clock in the dash. Axel was quite happy picking apart the function of the clock-bridge when Roxas did something completely confounding and almost startling.

He turned off the car, heat from the vents stopping immediately, and pulled the keys from the ignition. "This is it," he announced as he took his seat belt out.

Axel sputtered. "We're-we're not getting out are we?"

The teen laughed as he opened his door. A rush of cold air flooded the car as he got out, briefly ducking back in to grin a little at him. "C'mon. It's not that cold outside." Axel huffed and rolled his eyes but shoved open his door too now that Roxas implied that he couldn't take the cold. As he stepped out, he couldn't help himself, he involuntarily shivered. Roxas laughed at him, eyes going squinty. "What? You act you've never been through a Bastion winter before."

He glared hard at the laughing teen that was making his way over to the clock-bridge. "I have been through winter before, thank you very much, douche-face. I just happen to be naturally more suited to warmer weather is all," he said grumpily. "It's my genetic makeup."

Roxas shook his head and lifted himself onto the bridges high railings. "Yeah, right. More like you can't take it 'cause you're all bones."

Axel huffed and glanced down at himself. He was not all bones. He looked over at Roxas. Roxas was just as thin as he is! How dare he. He swung his legs over the rails and sat next to his now-friend. "Oh, and you're naturally predisposed for cold weather."

"Shut up," Roxas laughed and then quieted. Axel wrapped his arms around himself, one hand warm from the coffee. From their improvised bench, there was a nice view of the road and the beginning of low-town behind it. Even with the couple day old snow, it was almost pretty. "You know," Roxas said quietly, almost a whisper. "I really love this place… It's kind of ironic 'cause whenever I come here, it's like time just stops."

The older teen frowned, not getting it. "How is that ironic?"

"Dude," he said, raising an eyebrow like Axel was obviously stupid for asking that. "It's a clock…"

"Oh." God, he _was_ obviously stupid. But Roxas apparently thought it was funny because he chuckled and his eyes went squinty in the way they did when he found something funny. They sat there for a while.

They sat there for a while, not talking, not doing anything, just looking forward and watching as a car or two passed under them. Even so, Roxas's chest was palpitating a little for some reason. His hand was lingering an inch or two closer to Axel's than what was normal but he tried to not think about it, tried to not look over, tried to not get his hopes up. He shifted a little closer in a way that was inconspicuous and his hand was closer still, freezing and slowly going numb but closer, there if Axel wanted to hold it.

Oh God, he was freezing. The chill that his thick jacket had kept away had slowly but surely sunk into him, into his bones. He was _bone_ cold. Axel wondered how long you had to be out and in what temperature to get frostbite. Because he was losing feeling in his hands. The hot coffee wasn't hot anymore. God, he was cold.

"God, I am so cold," he stated urgently, finally breaking under the pressure. Roxas jumped a little at his sudden outburst and probably thought he was a weakling but he just couldn't take it anymore. "Are you freezing? I'm freezing." He was positively _shivering_.

Roxas's eyes crinkled up and he nodded. "I lost feeling in my hands."

"Oh, man, come on dude, let's go," he begged, doing a little jig to get off the railing without moving his arms to conserve warmth. He and Roxas shivered back to the car as quickly as humanly possible.

He never even noticed how close Roxas's hand was or how it was positioned perfectly for hand holding.

(19) Cups of Coffee

Kingdom Wars.

One of Axel's favorite games. He lost track of time playing the addictive game into the late hours of the night or rather, early hours of the morning. He always loved playing the versus mode because then he could feel superior when he totally demolished his friends within seconds. Currently staring nervously at the screen, thumbs flying all over the controller to start sick combo moves, he watched his character be quickly hacked into pieces.

Roxas also loved the versus mode.

"Yeeah! Take _that_! Do you wanna go again? You might win this time," Roxas teased, snickering under his breath. That was not good sportsmanship. Axel scrunched his face up and selected his character again without saying a word, thumbs poised to start immediately. Roxas started the game, tongue sticking out of his mouth cutely. 3...2...1...START!

Long jab, high kick, high kick, special combo move-that was interrupted as Roxas unleashed several well-aimed strikes of his swords, pushing Axel's character further to the edge and finished with a swift power kick that sent Axel's assassin falling to his death.

"AUGH," the redhead groaned, letting his controller fall through his hands. "You dick! I can't believe you pushed me off the edge. I hate you, we are not friends anymore. I am never talking to you again." Fat chance of that. Axel'd been hanging out with the teen everyday for the past two weeks, steering clear of the coffee shop but seeing him before his shift or after. He explained his absence from the shop as a lack of money for his grossly overpriced drinks, which was sort of true but not really.

Roxas laughed. "I'm sorry. Actually, no, I'm not. Why should I be sorry for my naturally gifted abilities? They're a gift from god. WORSHIP THEM." Roxas wiggled his fingers in front of Axel's face quite obnoxiously to which Axel opened his mouth and tried to catch them with several snaps of his teeth. After several close calls, Roxas's fingers were back at the controller, playing alone now while Axel read a magazine.

The past two weeks had been mostly like this, but with one considerable difference. One night Axel had woken up to the shrill song of his phone ringing and, answering it, Riku had excitedly regaled this to him:

_He and Sora were looking at the stars on the top of the flat roof of the coffee shop, just laying there, holding hands. All of a sudden, he thought of Axel and wondered how the Roxas Situation was going and then he thought of Sora, holding hands with him. Sora, who was Roxas's brother. Last he heard Axel still wasn't sure if Roxas was gay and if anyone would know, he figured it would be Sora. So he looked at his boyfriend and asked. _

"_Hey, is Roxas gay?" _

_Sora blinked once and then twice, looking utterly perplexed. He scoffed and huffed and puffed at the stars, "What? Roxas? Gay? What? Nooooooo. No." He shook his head and pursed his lips before looking over at him and conceding. "Yeah."_

Needless to say he was excited about this news, a new fire igniting now that he knew he actually might have a chance maybe! Ahh, and that was enough to plaster a smile on his face for days on end. It wasn't like that little tidbit changed everything or put everything Roxas ever did or said into new light. Axel just had a new skip in his step, a new lightness. And he liked that.

Outside Roxas's door, he heard a heavy shuffle of feet passing, probably Roxas's dad, Cid, whom Axel had met earlier. A big man, just as tall as he was but packed with muscle and a rough demeanor. Strange, though, Axel noticed that he drank tea instead of coffee which was weird considering he ran a coffee shop. He also met Roxas's mom, Shera. She was nice, kept offering him food. Roxas glanced over and then back at the screen again when the footsteps faded away.

"Have you ever, like, stepped back for a moment and realized that you know nothing about your parents?"

Axel frowned, contemplating. "Yeah, sorta. But in retrospect, how much do our parents know about us?"

Roxas knocked down a squadron of dark soldiers as he talked. "Well, yeah. That's true. But it's just weird to me that we can spend our entire lives being taken care of by these people and yet never know what's on their mind or what they do in their private time. Or what they did before they had kids. Isn't that weird to you? Like their entire life just disappears when they have a kid. They become a whole other person."

"Well. Before they had kids, they were kids. When you have a kid, you need to take on certain responsibilities that clash with who you were before," Axel told him, not reading the magazine anymore but watching him quietly. "And I guess it's weird that they don't tell you stuff but they just want a little privacy. When you have kids you have to give your all so I can understand that they want to keep a little bit of themselves for, you know, themselves."

The teen nodded. "I understand that. It's just so weird now, because while they're not fighting as much I know now that they do fight. It's just weird to look at them now."

"'Cause now you know they're human. And they have faults, easy as that." Axel flipped the page of the magazine. Roxas demolished another large group of dark soldiers, working his way toward the Mirage Castle, which was alternately there and not there. "It's all give and take. You can only watch them as they do things and they can only watch you and hope you don't fuck up. So don't fuck up. That's what life's all about, trying to not fuck up."

Roxas laughed, eyes going all crinkly and lips upturned in a big smile. "I like your outlook on life."

"I like telling you my outlook on life." _I like you_, he mentally added, smiling silently to himself. Roxas laughed lowly and saved his game, tossing the other controller at the redhead. They played versus for hours and hours, changing players every round. Axel won some but lost most, Roxas laughing and smiling until the very end. For the life of him, Axel couldn't think of a better way to spend the day.

(20) Cups of Coffee

There was a week between cup nineteen and twenty. Axel helped Roxas study for a big test, Roxas came over to his house to kick his ass at Kingdom Wars again and this time Axel enjoyed it. They went to the comic shop again and Roxas showed him all of his favorites, explaining how much they mean to the comic world and why they were so amazing. Axel met Naminé, the girl Roxas dated four years ago. She was sweet, a little shy, and totally not interested in Roxas romantically in the least. Axel liked her. Roxas came over and they had macaroni and cheese dinner. Only a week, though. Roxas pushed a free spiced chai latte on him.

Only two more left and how terrible that sounded, even when it was just in his head.

"I heard _Land of Wonder _was cool," Roxas said, biting on the straw of his large drink as he stared at the list of movies. Axel hummed, drawn back from his own thoughts, not necessarily agreeing but not disagreeing either.

They didn't even plan to see a movie today, just hanging out. Then Sora called so they went to pick him up at the mall and then Roxas's dad called Sora to work on last minute notice so Sora ended up taking the car to work, leaving he and Roxas alone at the mall. It wasn't too bad, almost sorta like a date. Maybe he would take Roxas out to dinner later. He liked the sound of that.

The other movies showing within an hour, the most amount of time Axel would wait at the theater, were Land of Wonder, Djinn, The Gates of Twilight, and The Planet. Land of Wonder looked like a tripfest, talking animals and weirdness and a smiling cat. It had awesome looking graphics though and looked funny. Djinn was about a street kid who fell in love with an Arabian princess and had to do stuff to win her over and save the day or something. Gates of Twilight looked cool to him; from what he could tell from the previews it was about a kid who wasn't real or a part of someone else and didn't want to give up his life. The Planet looked freaking awesome, full of bad guys and good guys and a corrupt government and fighting and an alien. There was also a real cute main hero guy who looked like Roxas.

"I think we should see The Planet," Axel decided.

"No. I'm sick of action films. I want to see Land of Wonder or Gates of Twilight. You can pick," he added, smiling. Axel frowned. He didn't want to pick. He wanted to see The Planet! He was about to tell Roxas this when someone from behind them called out.

"Roxas?"

The blond teen turned and smiled when he saw three kids his age waving to him. "Hi guys," he greeted when they walked over. Axel noticed they gave him suspicious looks. "This is my good friend, Axel. Axel, this is Hayner," he pointed to a blond kid with wavy hair and muscles. "Pence," a chubby kid with crazy hair and a weird shirt. "And Olette," a pretty girl with big green eyes and a friendly smile. She needed to get rid of those orange socks though. Pretty okay group of friends.

"Are you seeing a movie? We're going to see a movie, you should come with us!" Olette said. Axel decided he didn't like her, trying to take away his precious time with Roxas away. Roxas glanced over at him and Axel shrugged good-naturedly.

"Sure."

"Dude, we have to see The Planet," the blond guy stressed. "I heard it was so amazing, they're gonna make a game out of it."

Roxas groaned. "I've seen too many actions movies this month. If I see another bomb, my brain is going to explode with it. It can't take that shit anymore. It's done."

"Augh, but it'll be so worth it, Rox! Have you seen the previews for it? Your brain'll thank you for taking it to see it."

"Not if it explodes," Roxas mumbled.

"Even so," Hayner shrugged, walking over to the ticket booth like the discussion was done. That was sort of mean. Axel frowned; he would never do that to Roxas. Yeah, he was going to make him go to the movie anyway but he would have been nice about it at least. Roxas sighed as he followed his friends, smiling tiredly at him.

"Looks like we're going to see The Planet."

"I knew you would see the light," Axel teased. Roxas laughed but punched him in the arm. They paid for their tickets, Roxas refusing to let Axel buy him one even though Axel got a free coffee today, and sat down. The one thing Axel really, really liked about movie theaters was how close the seats were. If he stretched and got comfortable, his leg would be next Roxas's and they could share an armrest, so those would be touching too. Which was always awesome. The movie, he was sure, was also awesome and he was also sure he would have enjoyed it. If he had, you know, been paying attention to it.

During the previews, he realized what Roxas called him. His good friend. That's what he called Demyx, or Larxene. Good friends with zero romantic or sexual interest. And Roxas called him that. That's all he could think of, the entire movie, was how Roxas said it, like it was nothing. Good friends. Good friends? What does that even mean?

He knew what it didn't mean. It didn't mean that they were anything but friends. It didn't mean that they had something going on. It didn't mean that Roxas liked him. It didn't mean anything. It was meaningless.

He kept thinking that, over and over again when fights broke out on the screen. Kept thinking it when the female lead died tragically. Thought about it when she was avenged and the world was saved or whatever, he didn't know. He kept thinking about it and he couldn't pay attention and stared at Roxas when he wasn't looking, wondering why he said good friends. And then he knew why he said good friends. Because they _were_ good friends.

And that was it.

Fuck.

(21) Cups of Coffee

The jingle of the bell above the door, the sound of his feet stomping to get rid of the snow, walking over to the counter and placing his order. Waiting for it, hands holding a magazine, paper thin and glossy under his fingers, reading over and over but not understanding a word. The click-clank of the big mug being set down, chair making a horrendous noise as it slid across the floor and Roxas sat, smiling. Something about school, a girl who was being obnoxious in class today, explosive laughter even though Axel didn't remember what was funny. Something about Yuna getting married next Saturday and how she was his cousin and that he was going. Watching Roxas sip down coffee, catching and licking away the drops that escaped him, tongue red. Lips catching on his teeth when he smiled, the light shining on his hair, blue of his eyes. More laughter. More smiles. Suddenly he noticed that all of his coffee was gone but didn't remember drinking it. The squeal of the chair again, Roxas getting up, promising to come back soon with another. Watching him walk away. Light footsteps of him coming back. Axel said something that he didn't remember but must have been funny because he remembered watching Roxas laugh, his eyes crinkling up. Hands burning hot where it touched the ceramic cup, cold everywhere else. He didn't drink this cup, he remembered that. Eventually he let go of it for some reason, to sit differently. Roxas talked incessantly about something and he was enthralled, something about this band he like and how happy he was they were coming to town and that they were awesome, etcetera, etcetera. After awhile he was so lost in whatever he was saying that when he went to take a drink, he took Axel's. But Axel noticed. And he remembered feeling pleased but also sad that he felt so comfortable to drink his stuff. Happy because that was great. Sad because Roxas probably felt so comfortable with him because they were friends, "good friends". And that was it. Weeks and Axel still didn't know if Roxas like him. The only mile mark he made was because Riku asked Sora about Roxas's sexuality. Roxas never even talked about it, never flirted, never said anything that suggested he thought about them being together. Twenty-one cups of coffee. After another hour or two (more laughter, more smiles), Axel left, bell above the door jingling, wondering why the hell he voluntarily put his heart through hell and heartbreak, why he taunted himself everyday by being with someone he could never have? He would never have Roxas; or rather, Roxas would never have him.

He didn't think he could convince himself otherwise anymore.

Axel could hardly sleep, his brain was far too everywhere to rest, realizing he hardly remembered the day even though he was fairly sure it happened. He watched the clock turn from 11:10 to 11:11 and remembered something Demyx told him one time and shut his eyes as tight as possible and made a wish. When that was done, and he was lying in bed with no evidence that anything changed, feeling stupid and all alone. He stared at his ceiling and knew that he couldn't wait any longer. It was just prolonging the inevitable. If he was going to lose Roxas he would rather have it done quickly, with less pain than dragging it on for months and getting his hopes up day after day. He would have to do it; he would have to do it tomorrow. Even if it sucked, he had to. Like pulling off a band-aid you've had on for so long it sort of fused to your skin. Like that.

But he was scared, fretting about losing someone he called a friend and hung out with and liked. In a way, he didn't want to lose the comfort of that slight chance, because it came along with so much more. It came along with smiles and jokes and coffee and comic books and movies and talking and reminiscences and secrets and video games and someone very intriguing. Axel just didn't want to lose him, wasn't sure if he could do that, was mostly sure he would like to keep Roxas around him for a long time if possible.

Was that possible? Was it possible to be friends after a friend told you they've wanted you all that time? Would it be the same? Axel didn't want it if it couldn't be the same, he didn't want a different, weird-around-him Roxas. He wanted the Roxas he liked. It probably wasn't possible, he decided, getting tired as the day officially ended and another began. He rolled over and wrapped his blankets around him, staring at the wall before he closed his eyes and sighed.

He woke up to sunshine peeking through his blinds and silence, a warm bed and cold room, his life. He got up, took a scalding hot shower to wake up, put some pants on, a shirt, shoes, coat. And left. It was cold, but not snowing. There was a chilling breeze but it wasn't windy. The coffee shop had customers but wasn't crowded. Axel realized he had no idea what time it was or if Roxas was even working today, but he figured that since it was the weekend the teen would be here eventually. He hoped and hoped and crossed his fingers that Roxas would be there, steeling himself for what would come next, running scenarios through his head so when they actually happened he would be prepared and they wouldn't hurt as much.

Roxas turned around and smiled distractedly at him when he heard the bell ring, the scene more devastating that it should be. He was taking someone's order, Brown-Haired Girl smiling softly to herself as she went around giving people refills. Axel suddenly remembered the first time he came in here, not even knowing Roxas's name, driven here more by a sexual drive than the emotional one he had now. He was so stupid then, conceited. He had no idea what he was doing, not that he did now but, well, whatever. Yeah.

He got in line.

"Hey, man," Roxas greeted him, blissfully unaware of what Axel was going to do, innocently happy to see his "friend". "Whaddya want? We're not so busy so I can hang out with you after."

"Oh," Axel said dumbly, staring at his hands nervously. He realized that he failed to think up a plan on his way here. "Um. Okay. I'll, uh. I'll have a… a dark chocolate mocha." He'll think of one by the time Roxas is done, for sure. The teen barista nodded his head and went to work on it, without even calculating it into the machine. "Um, you forgot to take my money?"

Roxas snorted, shaking his head. "Dude. You're a friend, it's on the house," he smiled.

Axel smiled back and turned, sighing with a sinking feeling in his stomach as he got into his usual chair at his usual table. He suddenly thought that if it didn't go well he would never come back in here, back to this table, holy fuck, what if Roxas never wanted to see him again? What if it went bad? Holy fuck, holy fuck, holy fucking shit.

_Okay, okay, okay, _he told himself, taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly, wringing his hands together. _Okay_. He would have to like start out slowly, ease the conversation into it. He couldn't just blurt it out, that would end in possible disaster more quickly. Ease in, how was your day? Me? I'm okay…only something's been bugging me for a real long time. What, you ask? Well, for starters, I've wanted to shove my tongue down your throat since the day I met you.

Axel frowned, no, that wouldn't go over to well. That was just…no. Fuck.

"Okay," Roxas started to say as he walked over, holding a bright red mug carefully. FUCK. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. He wasn't ready! He didn't have anything! No words, sentences, something smart to say, nothing! SHIT. He was brain-dead, unmoving in front of an extremely noticeable train about to crash into him. Roxas was saying something but he couldn't hear it, blood pumping so damn loud in his ears, adrenaline going and making everything quiet. He went to take the cup.

"Ah, SHIT!" The cup was scorching hot, startling hot, even hotter still as he instinctually jumped and liquid spilled over the rim and onto his lap. Fuck.

"I told you it was hot!" Roxas's big blue eyes were wide with sudden shock, going wider with disbelief. "Shit, it got on you; I'll go get something to-"

"No!"

Roxas stopped, already half turned to get something for the cooling liquid, blinking, shocked still by Axel's outburst. "What? What is it?"

The redhead was stunned too by that, embarrassed about how loud he was and blushing under Roxas's undivided attention. What did he do now? He said that to stall but he had nothing to say to back it up. What did he do now? What else could he do? "I…I…" he stammered, biting his lip before he just started talking. "I. Rox. Are you, are you gay?" Roxas said nothing, brows furrowing and mouth opening slightly but saying nothing. So Axel continued, laughing an un-funny laugh at his own stupid, stupid self. "I mean. Actually. I know you're gay. I do. But what I'm saying is. Is." He took a deep breath, mumbling to Roxas's shoes instead of his face, "Do you- do you like me?"

He didn't see the look on Roxas's face and didn't know if he wanted to, gathering up his courage and just going with it, sure he had nothing to lose but everything he could possibly want. " 'Cause, I mean. I can't look at you without wondering how it would feel to kiss you," he said sincerely the words he'd never spoken aloud before. "_But it's so much more than that_. I wanna know you inside out, upside down and backwards. I want to know what you're thinking, I want to know you like no one has ever known you before. I want to be your everything because you're the only person that matters to me anymore and I would really, really like it if…if you could just look me in the eye like I look into yours…" He looked into Roxas's eyes for a moment. The boy was staring at him, still. Axel couldn't read the look on his face.

"Axel…. What are you saying?"

He let out a desperate laugh, looking at his cup of dark coffee, running a hand through his hair and letting it linger. "I'm saying I think I love you, even though I've never kissed you, or touched you like that. I'm saying I think about you ten times every second. I'm saying, I'm saying I've been coming here trying to get you to notice me. And then you did but not the way I wanted you to. I…I am far too in love with you to look at you every day and want to kiss you and know that I can't." His breathing sounded very loud to him, his words sounded strange to him, like he was listening to someone else say them.

"I…I can't be in love with you every day when you're never going to love me back. I can't, Rox. I can't." He took a sharp inhale of breath, a little sniffle behind it. He looked at Roxas, who was shell-shocked, looking at him with wide blue eyes. "I've been coming here every day, drinking those new coffee things to impress you. I've had every single one of them…" He held the boy's eyes for as long as he could stand it and Axel could feel his pulse, blood coursing through his veins. He felt like he was on fire, like he was burning up right where he sat.

Roxas's eyes were very blue as they fell to the ground, the boy's brows coming together. He stared at the floor for a very long time… and Axel closed his eyes and buried his face in his hands.

When Roxas's breath hitched, throat clearing, Axel couldn't help himself, he peeked through his fingers forlornly, waiting for the blond boy to yell at him and those lips to say stay the fuck away and never come back.

Roxas's eyes were so blue and his lips were red as he absently licked them. He looked right at Axel like they were the only two people in the room, right into his face. He licked his lips a second time. And started to talk softly but haltingly, hesitating at certain words and saying others with a strong confident voice. His eyes were so blue, an honesty in them, a certainty in them.

"I…Well. You know… we, we have a whole line of house brews," he said, gulping once as Axel removed his face from his hands. "From all around the world. Ranging from mild to really bold. And…and in all sorts of flavors, I, yeah. And we were thinking of importing some teas," he babbled, hands flying everywhere as he talked, nervous. "to go along with our selection and-"

He was cut off as Axel leaned out of his chair and pressed their lips together, one hand moving to touch his hair and another to touch his cheek. Soft, barely there.

When Axel moved back, a little wet noise sounding as their lips parted, he saw that, one; Roxas was flushed and his eyes were dazed and that, two; Roxas's dazed eyes were settled on him so he leaned in and with more force kissed him once again. And what a fucking glorious feeling it was: everything he thought it would be like and more. Roxas's lips were soft and moved nervously against his. He was growing a little lightheaded with just the knowledge that he was _kissing_ Roxas. _Roxas_.

With a little gasp and a gentle shove back, Roxas backed away, face pink. He stared a little, wide eyed, at Axel and then averted his eyes. For a second the older teen worried if he moved too fast. But then the blond smiled, running a hand through his hair and laughed, shyly looking back up at him.

He took a seat across from Axel. Blue, blue, blue eyes glanced at him and he licked his lips nervously, "So…"

The redhead moved so he was directly facing him and nothing and no one could have wiped the smile off his face. "So…" he repeated, laughing breathlessly, an almost unbelieving laugh. No, he actually really couldn't believe it. But it was. It really fucking was, it really fucking happened. Wow, it happened. Roxas's left hand was lying inconspicuously close and fidgeted a little. Axel noticed and with a smile covered it with his own. It was warm and soft and sent chills up his spine when their fingers laced together. It was a little awkwardly positioned but it worked.

Roxas smiled as he looked at their hands and then smiled more as he looked at Axel. He opened his mouth several times to say something and each time Axel waited. He himself was speechless, capable of only smiling like an idiot and staring adoringly at Roxas without holding back this time. Eventually the teen gave up, laughing apologetically and gestured to his untouched cup of coffee. "So," he smiled. "Are you going to drink that?"

Axel laughed and squeezed his hand, dutifully taking a sip.

(22) Cups of Coffee

* * *

Fin!

Only took like six months but it's done. Hope you guys enjoyed it. I probably had a bunch of, things that I wanted to say, but I can't remember right now. Um. Thanks for being nice and waiting so long for the second part. I am working on another fic, already, I've had it lined up for awhile now. and I posted the first chapter of it up on my lj. and I'm going to post a music playlist that goes along to it like I did with Summer Boy in the next few days. Not going to post one for 22 because it had little to no music in it. Although if you do want some good music, I listened to post harbor. and The River Empires while writing this. Both of them are awesome, I think. Okay, that's it I guess.

Thank you so mucj for reading this and waiting so long. It would be very awesome if you reviewed to tell me what you thought! Have a great summer kids!


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